


Missing Pieces

by Snooopid



Category: B.A.P, EXO (Band), GOT7, K-pop, 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2019-01-12
Packaged: 2019-09-12 21:29:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 23,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16879527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snooopid/pseuds/Snooopid
Summary: Centuries ago two planets, Planet Mato and EXO Planet, began a war that would continue for generations. With each new generation, they were prepared for battle. With the reason for the war long lost, it was beginning to seem that the fighting between the two planetary species was useless. After some time, they finally decide on a cease fire to determine the future of the two planets and their people. Now it was up to the newest generation to get through the discrimination and unnecessary fighting between the nation planets. For a new chance at true peace will show itself....





	1. Chapter 1

 

Daehyun bent slightly to kiss his wife Xelena sweetly on the lips as they stood in the docking area. The sound of engines ready to take off as twenty soldiers prepared to go off into space on the shared moon between EXO Planet and Planet Mato for three months. The sounds of cries of goodbyes from other families echoed throughout the hangar.

 

“Be careful up there.” Xelena said as she hugged onto Daehyun tightly. “I want you back here in one piece.”

 

“Honey, we’re going for peace. There won’t be any fights between us.” Daehyun assured her as he held her close. Not wanting to let her go.

 

“That’s what you say now but you and I both know that once all forty of you are on that base, tensions will rise and someone will try to be alpha male.” Youngjae said, his eyes turning a bright green.

 

Everyone on Planet Mato had them. It was their telltale part of their anatomy that made them who they were but they hid it under the guise of another color that they chose in the last few decades, as a safety measure in case they needed to hide amongst the enemy. It was their only bit of magic that their kind had. They were more of a technological race than magical. Not many knew this, especially not their enemies the Exotytes who were all magic.

 

“You know I won’t be having any of that. Now change your eyes back.” Daehyun shifted Xelena from in front of him to use his other arm to slap at Youngjae’s arm playfully as he switched his eyes back to the deep grey he usually had them as.. Youngjae had a huge grin on his face and reached for Xelena.

 

“You might want to get going. You’re about to be the last one to get on board.” He said pointing towards the entrance of the ship. Captain Himchan Kim, stood at the door seeing everyone get on board. His stern eyes landed on the three of them and softened. He didn’t smile but his eyes, colored a beautiful shade of purple, showed familial affection towards them.

 

Xelena weaseled out of Youngjae’s grasp to give Daehyun one final kiss goodbye. She stepped back slowly, tears forming in her hazel eyes as she watched him walk towards the ship. He placed his uniform cap on his head before stepping onto the platform that led to the ship’s entrance.

 

“She just wouldn’t let you go huh?” Himchan said as he got closer. Daehyun gave him a cheeky grin and walked inside. As the doors closed behind them, he spoke.

 

“We may or may not have tried for a baby again before we left this morning.” His smile grew wider remembering the events of the morning.

 

“I’m guessing she didn’t want to stop.” Himchan gave him a knowing look.

 

He and Himchan shared a laugh as they walked to their seats. Everyone else saluted them as they passed and they both nodded in return. The trip to the MatExo Peace Base would take half a day and since Daehyun was exhausted, he went to one of the cots provided on the ship and settled himself in for a much needed nap.

 

The ship was quiet except with a few soldiers whispering about what to expect from the Exotytes.

 

“What do you think these other soldiers will be like?” One spoke carefully.

 

Another shrugged. “Maybe they’ll do us all a favor and ignore us.”

 

“But isn’t the point of this whole thing so we can get to know one another and stop the war?”

 

“Yeah, but I don’t feel like dealing with them after fighting with them for centuries.”

 

“Hmm, so you still see a reason to fight?” Himchan’s voice cause them all to stand at attention and salute him. “Tell me soldier, what is your name?”

 

“Jaehyo Ahn, sir.”

 

“Now, Private Ahn. What is the reason we are fighting this war?”

 

Jaehyo stayed silent. Himchan nodded and looked at the other soldier he was speaking with. “What about you?”

 

“Minhyuk Lee, sir.”

 

“In the future, refrain from such statements. We are trying to establish peace between our planets for a good reason.” With that, Himchan left them to continue walking about the ship. Jaehyo and Minhyuk shared a look as soon as he was no longer in sight, slinking down into their seats once more.

 

Daehyun woke up halfway through the trip and ventured out into the ships rest area. He saw Himchan leaning against a wall and walked over to him.

 

“So what did I miss during my nap?” He yawned as he spoke, his eyes changing back to its warm brown as he did so.

 

“Nothing really. Everyone is nervous about this entire thing considering the only time we’ve ever encountered them was on the battlefield. This could lead to a complete end to this war and bring peace to both planets.”

 

Daehyun shrugged. “I guess it’s really good that we had this base built then huh?”

 

Himchan smiled knowing Daehyun was really just as nervous as everyone else on the ship about meeting the Exotytes. These next few months would prove to be a struggle between the two worlds and it could end on either a really good note or the ending of the cease fire.

 

The ship finally landed on the base and everyone began to file off the ship. The base was pretty large with a huge cafeteria and lounge areas. They hadn’t been assigned to their rooms just yet but some of the Matoki soldiers were already choosing who they wanted to room with amongst themselves.

 

The troops walked in and sat down in one of the lounge rooms and waited quietly until the Exotytes walked into the room. The tension that encased the room was high. The other twenty soldiers in the room stared at one another blankly.

 

The commanders from each side stepped forward first and shook hands. Himchan eyed Joonmyeon Kim cautiously. Himchan already didn’t like him. His handshake was weak and he seemed like a pushover. But he wouldn’t be easily fooled by his first thoughts on the Exotyte male.

 

“Welcome.” Himchan said, his voice all business as he stepped back slightly to properly observe the others. “I hope we can get through these next few months without any mishaps.”

 

“Agreed.” Joonmyeon said simply before turning to his soldiers. “How will the rooming go?”

 

Himchan immediately took out a letter. It had the official seal of the Matoki on the outside, a stitched up rabbit. “According to this, my king and yours have decided that we pair up where it’ll be a Matoki and an Exotyte to a room.”

 

Soon as the words left his mouth, everyone began arguing.

 

“I’m not staying with a dirty creature like you in the same room!”

 

“Oh and you guys are any better? He looks like he hasn’t bathed in months.”

 

The insults kept coming from both sides. Himchan closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them, he saw that Joonmyeon was doing the same.

 

“This is for peace! Why are we fighting already?” An Exotyte stepped forward with a booming voice. He looked tired with the eye bags beneath them. Daehyun watched as he got every Exotyte to quiet down. Daehyun sighed and looked at the soldiers behind him. They all felt his stare and backed down. He could see his fellow soldiers restraining themselves so much but it was the best he could get out of them with all this tension filling the room.

 

“I think we just found the first two roommates.” Joonmyeon said with a smile. Himchan nodded and smiled at Daehyun.

 

“You don’t mean-” He was cut off.

 

“Yes. It would be fitting for the second in command to room together. Lt. Jung, you will be rooming with this Exotyte. What is your name soldier?” Himchan asked. The room’s noise level filled with murmurs on both sides.

 

“Baekhyun Byun.” He answered, his head held high. Himchan couldn’t help but see a slight resemblance between Lt Jung and Lt. Byun. He held a straight face as he looked between the two with stern eyes.

 

“Lt. Byun. The two of you will room together as an example of how this peace will work between us. You both are level headed from what I can see and I trust my best soldier to do his utmost when it comes to achieving this peace.” Himchan stated.

 

Baekhyun looked towards Daehyun with a blank expression. Daehyun let out a huff of breath before stepping forward, hand outstretched to greet the other soldier.

 

“I hope you don’t have any bad living habits but I also hope that we live comfortably for the next few months.” Daehyun stated. Baekhyun eyed him before bringing his hand to met his.

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

 

About an hour or so later, Daehyun and Baekhyun were unpacking their belongings in their room. It wasn’t spacious but it was enough. They each had their own beds, full size, on opposite sides of the room and their own nightstand and a lamp. There was one closet that they had to share but they at least had their own drawers for other clothes and a flatscreen television that had a variety of shows from both planets.

 

It was silent in the room other than the shuffling sound of belongings being put away and luggage being moved around.

 

Baekhyun sat down on his bed and sighed deeply. He missed home already. He watched as his new roommate continued to put his things away. The male’s stature was intriguing to him. He was a bit more bronze and his hair was a dark brown color. When he turned sideways, Baekhyun got a decent look at his lips and bit his own at how thick they were. He immediately shook his head at the thought that was beginning to form in his mind.

 

He had someone already. He couldn’t begin to settle his lovers’ fears as soon as he got there. He forced his eyes to the floor when Daehyun plopped down on his bed, face up.

 

“Arrrrghhhh” Daehyun stretched and yawned at the same time before flipping to his side. Daehyun eyed Baekhyun who wasn’t looking at him. “So….”

 

Baekhyun looked up a brow raising slightly.

 

“I figure we should get to know each other a bit. Is that alright with you?” Daehyun asked looking at Baekhyun expectantly. Baekhyun squirmed a bit and shook his head causing Daehyun to shrug. “Fine by me. Whenever you want to talk.”

 

Daehyun reached into his bedside table and took out a book and turned to where the bookmark was located and left Baekhyun in silence.

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

 

Its been about a month since the soldiers had been on the base. Each day would bring about something new between them. Matoki’s and Exotytes stayed separate despite the attempts that the captains and lieutenants made for them to try and get along. Some of them worked, many of them did not.

 

Once a week there was a new fight between a Matoki and an Exotyte due to some type of slur being thrown about. Daehyun and Baekhyun were breaking up what would be the newest outbreak between Yukwon and Minho. They were in the dining area of the base. Normally the tables would be in neat rows with the chairs nicely pushed in. Yet now they were strewn about due to the Exotyte using his magic on the Matoki.

 

“Are we really doing this right now?” Daehyun spat. He was growing frustrated with the constant fights that broke out. One moment he would think that they’re doing well, the next things would blow up between everyone. “We can’t go a damn week without someone on this base fighting! We go home in one month! Can’t we at least try to get along for once in our lives? Take a damn chance?”

 

Everyone gaped at Daehyun in silence. Himchan was sitting across the room with Suho beside him, drinking his coffee. They watched the fight happen, long giving up on stopping them.

 

“You think they can do this in a month’s time?” Suho asked watching the soldiers finally move to clean up the tables and chairs.

 

Himchan didn’t speak for a while and continued to watch the men until they were all but out of the room. He placed his mug down on the table and sat up straight.

 

“I think that anything is possible but once this is over, we’ll have to report to our kings for what could happen next.” With that, Himchan stood up and left Suho alone in the dining area.

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

 

After the fight in the dining area last week, everyone avoided one another for the first three days into the new week. It wasn’t great but it was a start. Some of the female soldiers found it easier to get along and were soon intermingling with one another after the first month. The males, however were still tense around each other.

 

On the fourth day, Daehyun was lying in his bed going through the photo album he found snuck into his bag. No doubt by Xelena. It had many photos of him during his training days. Baekhyun walked into their room and stood in the doorway for a moment before walking over to sit beside him.

 

“So what’re you looking at?” Baekhyun’s voice sounded nonchalant as he spoke.

 

Without missing a beat, Daehyun responded. “Old military photos. Would you like to see?”

 

Baekhyun nodded and leaned slightly to look at the photos. He smiled when he saw Daehyun grinning with pride in one of the photos. His hair was longer than what is was now and he wore a simple grey jumpsuit and cap. His arms were thrown around two other Matoki soldiers, one looking exactly like Himchan now. Daehyun turned the page and started laughing.

 

“Ah this brings back memories! Himchan and Youngjae here would have drinking battles regularly. Youngjae always lost though. Himchan has been quite the strong drinker since I’ve known him.”

 

“Where were you?” Baekhyun asked leaning in closer, trying to spot Daehyun in the photo. Daehyun froze a bit when he saw how close Baekhyun was but then relaxed when he turned to look at him, waiting for an answer.

 

“I’m right here in the corner with some other soldiers, eating. I’m not one for drinking games.” His smile was contagious.

 

The rest of the night, Daehyun and Baekhyun spoke of their time during military training until they fell asleep sitting upright on Daehyun’s bed.

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

 

Over the next few weeks, Daehyun and Baekhyun had gotten closer with one another and everyone noticed. They walked the halls together chattering happily about anything and everything. The positive atmosphere of the two soldiers rubbed off onto the others.

 

There hadn’t been any fights for the last few weeks, which was a good sign. Everyone seemed to have set aside their differences in order to achieve the peace they desired.

 

“So there was something that I’ve always been curious about with the Matoki’s.” Baekhyun began as the two of them got ready for bed. They had rearranged their room to create a large bed. The dressers were against the far wall under the flatscreen which faced them. The closeness between them seemed to have blossomed naturally and no one questioned it.

 

“And what might that be?” Daehyun gave him a playful look. He was already on his side and under the covers, his book in his hands. Baekhyun had learned that he enjoyed reading despite the immense technological advances that Planet Mato possessed.

 

“What is it that makes a Matoki?”

 

Daehyun sat up at the question, closing his book in the process. “What do you mean exactly?”

 

“I mean….is there something about the Mato race that we don’t know about?”

 

Daehyun pondered for a moment whether or not he should tell him. He trusted Baekhyun but he wasn’t sure this was something he should tell.

 

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to…” Baekhyun said, sensing Daehyun’s worry over the information.

 

Daehyun stared down at his hands as Baekhyun climbed into the bed and turned away from him.

 

The next morning, Daehyun was out of his bed and headed towards Himchan’s office. Knocking three times, he heard Himchan grunt out a “come in”. When he opened the door, he found Himchan at his desk writing what seemed to be a letter. Himchan looked up and smiled when he saw Daehyun walking in.

 

“How can I help you this morning, old friend?” He rested his head on the palm of his right hand.

 

“Oh not much really. I haven’t spent much time with you lately.” Daehyun replied.

 

“I’ll say. But you and Baekhyun seem to be getting along well, which was the goal of this whole mission.” Himchan looked back down at the letter he was writing before looking back up at Daehyun. “But that’s not why you’re here to see me, is it?”

 

Daehyun’s eyes went wide.

 

“Oh don’t give me that look. I’ve known you for over twelve years. At this point I know when you want something. Now what is it?” Himchan’s voice sounded playful and that made Daehyun’s next question harder to ask.

 

“What would you say if I told you Baekhyun asked what he doesn’t know about Matoki’s?” Daehyun asked slowly. He felt the atmosphere change in the room immediately and regretted asking.

 

“Do you trust him?”

 

At that Daehyun looked up at Himchan. He found his friend leaning on both of his hands and looking at him intensely, his purple eyes trembling. “I do, sir.”

 

Himchan let out a deep sigh before speaking again. “Then tell him and only him. Far as I can tell, the two of you were separated at birth with how you act around each other. Even before that last fight.”

 

Daehyun thought about Himchan’s words and smiled. They did seem to get along well before now. “Thank you Captain.” He stood up and walked out of the office with Himchan shaking his head and smiling.

 

_That’s a fast friendship if I’ve ever seen one._

 

Later that evening, Daehyun was lying in bed reading and Baekhyun was writing something down in a notebook. He looked over at the male and sighed before tapping his shoulder.

 

Baekhyun looked up from his notebook “What is--”

 

He stopped when he looked at Daehyun’s eyes. His normally deep brown eyes were gone. They were now a rich green color, one not seen on any being he’s ever seen. They were beautiful, almost like a precious stone and they were glazed over as Daehyun looked at him.

 

“Your eyes….they’re beautiful…” He said in a whisper so silent that Daehyun almost didn’t hear it. His hand reached for his face but then stopped suddenly. “Why are you showing me?”

 

Daehyun smiled and grabbed Baekhyun’s hand, placing it on his cheek. “I trust you. Simple as that. I already feel as if you would keep this between us. And I wanted to show you for some time now.”

 

They sat in that position for a moment before Daehyun leaned in close. Baekhyun’s eyes fluttered closed as Daehyun’s lips met his. The kiss was sweet and gentle. Daehyun’s pillow soft lips melded with Baekhyun’s and he sighed. When they pulled away, Daehyun’s eyes shifted back to the brown he usually kept.

 

“We shouldn’t be doing this.” Baekhyun said.

 

“I know...” Daehyun let go of his hand.

 

“This is dangerous.” He made no move away from the other male. In fact, he moved closer to Baekhyun, practically lying on top of him.

 

“I know…” He kissed his cheek and peppered kisses down to his neck.

 

“We can’t do this again…” Baekhyun whispered silently and Daehyun looked back at him, his eyes shifting back into those beautiful eyes of his. Daehyun spoke once more before kissing him again.

 

“I know...”

 


	2. Chapter 2

Baekhyun bit his bottom lip as he watched the base floating in space as the Exotytes ship move further away. That night with Daehyun meant everything to him, even though he was now headed home to EXO Planet, his heart began to ache for the loss of his roommate.

Joonmyeon saw Baekhyun looking out the wide windows of their ship and sighed. He knew that Baekhyun would be able to get closer to the Matokis but not this close. He was always an affectionate one. Joonmyeon thought he would actually be excited to go home rather than mope about the ship when they left. He walked over to the male and placed his hand on his shoulder.

“Everything will be fine. You get to see Chanyeol again. I’m sure he misses you.”

Baekhyun’s body went rigid at the mention of his lover’s name. It was one he hadn’t thought of in the last month and a half. Now everything that happened between him and Daehyun suddenly felt wrong. He already had a lover. That night in their room was just that one time. But it was so amazing to him.

He placed his hands on his head and sunk down to his knees. Joonmyeon raised a brow at him curiously but said nothing.  _ Whatever it is, its obviously something that he needs to work out on his own. _

But Baekhyun didn’t know what to do. His lover, Chanyeol, was worried about the very thing that he swore wouldn’t happen.

~~~

The ship landed onto the loading dock six hours later. Baekhyun’s heart drummed in his chest with each step he took off the ship. He looked around and saw his fellow soldiers greeting their families. He sadly didn’t see Chanyeol and his heart sunk.

He picked up his bags and headed towards the door. Once he walked out he was stopped.

“Hey.” The deep familiar voice called out to him. Baekhyun froze and turned his body slowly to face the taller male. He was leaning on a light post right outside the base watching the other male. Baekhyun was torn between running to him, never letting him go, or to turn around and keep walking to the vehicle.

He decided for the latter and walked to the car, ignoring his lover. Chanyeol followed behind him silently, his hands shoved into his pockets. He unlocked the car and tried to help Baekhyun put his bags away.

Without a word, Baekhyun jerked away from him. Chanyeol dropped his arm with a hurt expression on his face. Once Baekhyun was done putting his stuff back in the trunk, they got in the car and drove home in silence. Occasionally Chanyeol would glance over towards his lover and frown.

He had missed him so much. After Baekhyun had left the house to board the ship to go to the base, he had sat around and moped for a week. Chanyeol then realized that he didn’t have to worry about Baekhyun. He loved him and knew that he would be back with him safely.

When they pulled up to their home, Chanyeol placed a hand on Baekhyun’s shoulder. Baekhyun flinched but didn’t move away.

“Baby….” Chanyeol started.

“Don’t Chanyeol. I don’t want to talk about this right now.” Baekhyun spoke through gritted teeth.

“We have to talk about it eventually. I don’t want us to keep going like this.” He could feel the tears welling up in his eyes already. Having Baekhyun ignore him hurt more than he could say.

Baekhyun got out of the car and grabbed his bags before going inside of their home. Chanyeol sat in the car for a moment before following him inside the house, a blank expression on his face.

~~~

Baekhyun had been back for almost two weeks now and they still hadn’t spoken of their argument prior to Baekhyun’s departure to the shared base. Chanyeol was beginning to get anxious every time he saw Baekhyun in the same room as him. He still had his duties as Lieutenant to deal with and the matters at hand with peace talks between the planets so it kept Baekhyun busy and away from Chanyeol as much as possibe and he was grateful for it.

By the end of the second week, everything was in order. A treaty was signed and a temporary peace had been created between the planets. Baekhyun was glad that everything was settled but now he had to go home and face his lover.

He walked into the house to the smell of vegetables and spices wafting throughout the house. Chanyeol’s cooking always made him happy. He stepped into the kitchen and watched as Chanyeol hummed as he moved around the kitchen. Baekhyun sat on one of the barstools at the kitchen island while he cooked. He rested his chin in his hands, staring at his back lovingly.Chanyeol turned around and paused for a second when he saw Baekhyun, who had stopped smiling, before continuing his cooking.

“How did the meeting go?” He asked casually.

Baekhyun sat up straighter before answering. “It actually went well. It’ll be announced tomorrow.” He hesitated before speaking again. “How was your day?”

He could visibly see Chanyeol’s shoulders relax at the question. “Great. The prince came for a meal today. His fans on the other hand took up the entire restaurant.”

“Think he’ll choose his mate soon?”

Chanyeol shrugged. “Who knows? From the rumors I heard in the kitchen, the king wants him to choose a partner soon.”

Baekhyun couldn’t help but chuckle. King Wu Yifan always wanted what was best for his younger brother Prince Lu Han. And right now he was pushing finding him a partner.

“Sounds like our righteous king.”

A silence settled over the kitchen after that. Chanyeol finished up cooking and plated the meal before setting a plate in front of Baekhyun. They silently began eating, Chanyeol taking nervous glances at Baekhyun as they did so.

Baekhyun stopped eating and took a deep breath. Chanyeol looked up at him slowly.

“Is there something wrong with the food?” He knew there wasn’t being one of the best chefs on the planet cooking for the royal family and the nobles.

“About….our argument before I left…” Baekhyun started out slow but before he could continue Chanyeol was beside him hugging him tightly to his chest.

“I was stupid to even think that your heart would waver. I shouldn’t have doubted you.” Baekhyun bit his bottom lip and buried his face into his chest. Chanyeol pulled back slightly to tilt Baekhyun’s face upward. “I love you.”

Without a chance to reply, Baekhyun and Chanyeol were kissing, sweetly at first. It was a timid make up kiss between them. It soon grew in passion as Chanyeol picked up the other male. Next thing Baekhyun knew, he was beneath his lover on their bed.

“Chanyeol, I…” Baekhyun started but he was cut off with another kiss.

“Let me.” He whispered against his lips.

~~~

The next morning, Baekhyun woke to the scent of breakfast being made. He sat up in bed, the blanket falling from his bare chest as he looked at the other side of the bed. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

_ Why did that have to happen? _

Baekhyun went through his own thoughts wondering how to talk to Chanyeol again. Last night clearly showed how much he wanted to make up with him. Just thinking about it again made him shiver.

“Get back under the covers properly so that you can have your breakfast.” Chanyeol’s voice said from the doorway. He didn’t wear a shirt but his boxers hung low on his hips as he walked inside the bedroom with a tray in his hands. He placed it gently on Baekhyun’s lap before placing a soft kiss on his lips. Chanyeol stood back and started blushing before clearing his throat and speaking again.

“Hurry and eat your breakfast. An official stopped by today and you’re needed at the palace. The announcement is today correct?”

Baekhyun nodded as he took a spoonful of soup into his mouth, moaning silently at the explosion of flavor on his tongue.

Once he was finished eating, he got in the shower and put on his uniform; dark blue with silver lining, black boots and visor hat. Chanyeol walked him to the door and they kissed one last time before he walked out of the door, no longer worried about what happened and just happy that they were together again.

He arrived at the palace and greeted some of the other soldiers. He made it to the main chamber where King Yifan stood excitedly by the opening of the balcony. His brother Luhan was leaning against the wall watching his brother.

“You are way too eager about this brother. Calm down.” Luhan said twiddling his fingers slightly, a small array of lights appearing before him.

“Sir, it’s time.” One of the other soldiers, Minseok, said as he stood by the doors that lead to the balcony. King Yifan took a deep breath and stood up straight as he walked over to the podium. There was a cameraman capturing his entrance for those who couldn’t make it to the outdoor ceremony.

The rest of the soldiers, including Baekhyun, walked outside and stood in formation to protect the king in case of an emergency.

“People of EXO planet! As you may know, we had twenty of our best soldiers go to a special base to indict peace between our species and those of Planet Mato.” A silence filled the place. It was expected since every being on the planet were raised to hate and fear the Matokis. “But I am here today, proud to tell you that it was successful!”

There was a polite clapping and a few cheers here and there.

“So as of this year, both planets will be building a joint academy for our youth in neutral territory! Soon as your children become of age, they will be sent to this academy to build a bond between our species. I hope that this will bring among a new era of peace between our planets after centuries of war.” A huge cheer came from the crowd. Baekhyun was surprised but he was glad that their people were with them. No one wanted to go off to fight forever.

Once the speech was done, Baekhyun and the others led the king inside and closed the doors.

“Well that was invigorating.” Minseok said standing next to him. “How long do you think this pseudo peace will last?”

Baekhyun smiled. “Who knows? We won’t know unless we try.”

~~~

Weeks had passed since the announcement of the MatExo Academy being created. Baekhyun had to constantly be at the palace as of late since he was one of the soldiers that went on the peace trip.

They were sitting in the conference room with the king going over details of what will be taught at the Academy.

“So we already agree that histories and cultures should be discussed but what about the little things that will make them interact with one another on a more personal level?” Yifan spoke excitedly. He was finally seeing his work being put to fruition.

“How about…” Baekhyun didn’t hear the rest of what Yixing was saying because he passed out all of a sudden.

When he woke, he was in the palace hospital.  _ What happened? _

He turned his head to see Chanyeol sitting beside him. “You’re finally awake!” He shouted and wrapped his arms around him into a tight hug. “I heard you passed out during your meeting and they sent me here to see you. Are you alright love?”

“I feel fine. I don’t know why I passed out.” Right then, the door opened and the palace doctor, Zhang Yixing walked in with a clipboard in his hand. He flipped through the papers with a smile on his face as he stopped beside the bed.

“Oh good! You’re up. I have some exciting news for the both of you.”

Chanyeol and Baekhyun looked at one another confused before turning back to the doctor. “You know why I passed out then?”

“I ran some tests while you were sleeping and found something that should make both of your very happy.” Yixing picked up a piece of paper and handed it to Chanyeol, whose eyes went wide.

“What? What is it?” Baekhyun asked trying to sit up more.

Chanyeol looked at him with a huge grin on his face before turning the paper towards him. “You’re pregnant.”


	3. Chapter 3

Baekhyun paced in the living room of their home once more, nervous after the news was dropped. Chanyeol watched him from the couch, confused.

“How did this even happen?”

“You do remember our people’s anatomy right? We’re not like earthlings.” Chanyeol said jokingly. Realizing that Baekhyun was serious, he changed his tone. “Baek, what’s wrong?”

Baekhyun stopped in his tracks and looked at his lover sitting on the couch. He saw how worried he was and sighed. “It’s just….with everything happening right now, I’m nervous.”

“Oh baby,” Chanyeol reached for Baekhyun’s hands and made him sit on his lap. “Everything will be fine. And our little girl will be the greatest child ever.”

Baekhyun looked at him skeptically. “And what makes you think it’ll be female?”

“Because I know my family. We barely have boys. I was one of the rare ones.”

“Oh? Well then I hope its a boy then.” Baekhyun said laughing away whatever thoughts he had about his future child. If anything were to happen, he would deal with it then and there.

~~~

Months have gone by and Baekhyun's belly was huge. Chanyeol was so excited running around the capitol finding everything they would need for their child’s arrival. He walked into the house to find Baekhyun relaxing on the couch, going through paperwork.

“I’m home! I come bearing gifts!” He announced dropping bags into the armchair beside him. Chanyeol looked at his lover who was engrossed in his work. “You should be resting!”

“Channie, I’m pregnant. Not broken.”

“Yeah, well….you’re due any day now. I’ve barely seen you rest since you found out.”

Baekhyun dropped his pen and sighed. “I’m just making sure everything goes smoothly with this Academy. I can’t rest.”

“But you should with the due date so close.”

“Everything’s alright though. Even the doctors have said the pregnancy is still normal.” Baekhyun lifted himself off the couch slowly with a groan.Chanyeol went to help him but he was just swatted away.”Don’t worry about it. I’m not due until next month. It’ll be fine.”

Chanyeol watched as Baekhyun waddled to the kitchen and got himself a glass of water. He wasn’t sure but he felt as if something big was going to happen that night.

Later that night while they were lying in bed, Baekhyun couldn’t keep still. The baby was moving around so much that it woke him up. Chanyeol groaned as he turned on the bedside lamp.

“What’s wrong?” He said sleepily rubbing his eyes.

“I think something’s going on with the baby.” Baekhyun said in a tired voice. Chanyeol sat up immediately and checked everything the way Yixing taught him in case of emergency.

“Oh….oh dear, it’s time.” Chanyeol said hopping out of the bed and throwing on clothes. Baekhyun’s breathing became difficult as he felt a wave of pain throughout his body. Chanyeol hurriedly got them ready and drove them to the hospital. Without a word, Baekhyun was taken to the emergency room on a gurney.

Chanyeol ran beside him, holding his hand the entire way. They began numbing his body to prepare for the birth. They lifted Baekhyun onto the operating table while Chanyeol helped him with his breathing.

“Everything is going to be okay Baek.” He kissed his lover’s forehead gently while Baekhyun let out sharp breaths.

The Yixing walked into the room nonchalant and looked at Baekhyun’s very swollen body. “Well...this is going to be a big one. Are you ready?”

Baekhyun nodded before closing his eyes to brace the pain. Yixing waved his hands over his body to make him relax so that the birth would be easier and he did. “Let’s get this baby out of here.”

~~~

Nearly half a day later, Baekhyun was holding his baby boy in his arms with a proud Chanyeol leaning over them with a camera.

“Smile!” He told his tired mate and got a lazy smile in return. “Oh come on. That’s not the bright smile of a happy parent.”

“Chanyeol, I’m exhausted. The birth takes a lot out of the males on this planet remember? What if you were the bottom instead in this relationship and had this baby?” He asked stroking the baby’s hair. 

He hadn’t opened his eyes yet but that was normal. He wouldn’t open his eyes for at least a week. Or so they were told. This child was turning out to be one surprise after the other. Normally a baby Exotyte would show slight bursts of magic at birth but his seemed dormant. Otherwise he was a very healthy child.

Chanyeol didn’t respond as he snapped away with his camera. Yixing walked in with another chart and smiled at the couple.

“How are you feeling?” He asked coming to stand beside the bed.

“Better. Tired but much better.” Baekhyun said not taking his eyes off the small bundle in his arms.

“Have you figured out a name for him?”

Baekhyun looked at his son and back at Chanyeol before smiling. “Taehyung sounds nice don’t you think?”

~

A week later, Baekhyun was home alone with baby Taehyung. He hadn’t opened his eyes yet but he was nervous to see when he did. He resembled Daehyun so much, from his nose to his little mouth. He knew it could be possible but he wasn’t sure.

Baekhyun had him lying down for his nap while he cleaned up the house. He had just finished the dishes when he heard a low whine come from Taehyung’s bedroom. He dried his hands off on a kitchen towel before quickly making his way to the bedroom.

“I’m here, I’m here. What’s wrong little-” Baekhyun stopped in his tracks. Taehyung’s eyes were open. And they were a rich green color.

~~~

“Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad” A five year old Taehyung shouted while running down the hall, his brown locks flying back from the wind he created as he ran.

“Whoa there! Be careful. We don’t want Chanyeol catching you. You know how he is about running in the house.” Baekhyun said stepping in front of the child. He looked down at his son and covered his eyes frantically before speaking in a hushed tone. “What did I always tell you?”

He removed his hand from his son’s eyes and let out a breath of relief. They had become a deep shade of brown to hide the rich green that he inherited.

“Never let my eyes be seen.” The child whispered with a small giggle as if he were part of an elite team of soldiers.

“Good boy. Now what were you yelling about?” He asked picking up the child and resting him on his hip.

“I can’t find my pencils.” Taehyung said smiling and rubbing under his nose with his right hand..

“Oh? Won’t you need them for your first day at school? Let’s go find them.” The two of them went into Taehyung’s bedroom and began searching for them Once they found them, Baekhyun finished getting him ready for school. He held his hand as they walked towards the front door.

“Hey now! Aren’t I at least getting a goodbye?” Chanyeol said stepping out from the kitchen.

“Shouldn’t you be at the palace? Or are you on duty today for Kibum’s party?” Baekhyun asked kissing Chanyeol on the cheek.

“Oh he’ll live. I can’t miss my boy’s big first day.” He picked up Taehyung and swung him around before hugging him to his chest, making the young boy giggle.

“Dad, I can’t breathe.” Taehyung said muffled into Chanyeol’s chest.

“Oh! I’m so sorry!” He put his son down and patted his head. “Have a great day today TaeTae.”

With that, Baekhyun and Taehyung walked out the door. The primary school was a short walk down the street. The whole way, Taehyung sung to his heart’s content a song Baekhyun taught him the other day, fumbling over the words cutely. Baekhyun hummed along with him and smiled the entire way, his earlier fear long forgotten. When they made it to the school, Sunny, the teacher, greeted them excitedly.

“Is this your little boy? Oh he’s so handsome already!” Sunny reached down and pinched Taehyung’s cheeks and he laughed at the affection.

Baekhyun knelt to the child’s level and hugged him. “You behave in school okay? And remember what I always tell you.”

Taehyung nodded and kissed Baekhyun on the cheek before turning to Sunny who stood waiting by the door. He grabbed her hand and followed her into the building. She walked him pass a few rooms before stopping at one halfway down the hall. When she opened the door, Taehyung’s eyes went wide with excitement. He almost revealed his eyes but he remembered his father's warning.

He walked around the room, passed screaming children the same age as him with a huge grin on his face. Taehyung noticed a few children using magic in the corner of the room to create small fireworks around them. He walked over to them and they all stopped and stared at him.

“Hi!”

No response.

“My name is Taehyung! What’s your names?” He asked politely, holding onto the straps of his little bag on his shoulders.

One child, his hair dark and hanging over his eyebrows with dark circles under his eyes, stepped forward. “I’m Zi Tao, but you can just call me Tao. This is Kyungsoo, Kai and Sehun.”

Tao got elbowed in the side by Sehun. He was a bit smaller than everyone else but he seemed to be the leader of the little group of boys. Before anything more could be said, Sunny called all of the children to the center of the room.

They began their lesson with a little greeting song that Sunny taught. Taehyung had fun singing along with everyone. Sehun glared at him for a moment before going back to the song.

“Now, I’m sure your parents told you that at this age is when your powers come in.” There was a chorus of yes’ from everyone but Taehyung. The only magical thing he knew about himself he had to hide from everyone. One by one Sunny asked each child to showcase their magic abilities and he was amazed at every single one.

“Taehyung? It’s your turn now.” Sunny said pulling him out of his trance. He looked up at her scared. “It’s okay. We won’t hurt you.”

Taehyung tentatively walked to the front of the class and held on to the teacher’s leg. He looked at his class with nervous eyes, fighting keeping his special eyes hidden.

“Come on. No need to be shy.” Sunny said gently prying the child off her leg. Taehyung looked at his feet and bit the inside of his cheek. He was about to attempt to do the light show he saw earlier when a voice spoke up.

“You can’t do any magic yet can you?” He looked up to see Sehun smirking at him. Taehyung felt the tears pricking the corner of his eyes causing him to blink quickly so they wouldn’t fall but one slipped.

“Hah! You can’t do magic! You can’t do magic!” Sehun started chanting and the other kids joined in. Taehyung couldn’t hold in the tears anymore and silently cried as the taunting of the other children grew louder. Sunny picked up Taehyung and held him to her as she tried to get the other children to calm down.

The rest of the day, Taehyung stayed to himself. He watched the rest of the lessons from the back of the class, not interacting even though Sunny would try to get him to join in but he just stayed mute until it was time to go. He caught a few looks thrown at him in pity by a few other children but otherwise, he was taunted all day by his lack of magical powers.

When it was time for the parents to pick up their children, Taehyung stayed in a corner of the room by himself. He felt a presence come closer to him and he looked up to see Tao, Kyungsoo and Sehun standing in front of him. Kai had long been picked up.

“What do you want?” Taehyung said, choking back his tears. He looked at Tao and saw him sigh and shake his head at him.

“Just letting you know that I run this classroom. I want your lunch tomorrow.” Sehun said crossing his arms over his chest.

“But that’s my-”

“I don’t care. I want it.” Sehun said. Before he could say anything else, he looked to see Sunny calling for him. “See ya guys!” He said to Tao and Kyungsoo before running off to hug his mother who was waiting for him by the door.

One by one the rest of the kids were getting picked up, leaving Taehyung alone, afraid to get on Sehun’s bad side later for being nice to him.

Taehyung was drawing on a sheet of paper that Sunny had given him with the pencils he searched for happily that morning, when he heard a tell tale voice coming from the door.

“Hey son.” Chanyeol said leaning against the door with a smile. “Ready to go home?”

Taehyung got up and ran into his father’s arms and started crying again. Chanyeol was shocked and looked up at Sunny whose shoulders sagged and she gave him a sad smile.

“He was bullied today and stayed to himself.” She said picking up the piece of paper and Taehyung’s little backpack before walking over to Chanyeol again. “He doesn’t seem to have gotten his magic yet even though its normal for our children to have them at this age. Is there anything going on at home that I should know about? Maybe I can help?”

Chanyeol looked down at his crying son and sighed. “No. I’ll talk to my partner when he gets home tonight.” 

Sunny nodded and handed him the child’s bag and picture that he drew. Chanyeol looked at it and smiled. Taehyung had drawn himself, Baekhyun and Chanyeol on what looked like a couch in their home. He slung the little bag over his shoulder and picked up Taehyung and walked him out of the building.

His cries went to low sniffles as he was carried home.

“You wanna talk about it Tae?” Chanyeol asked him. Taehyung pulled back slightly and rubbed his eyes. When he opened them, Chanyeol stopped in his tracks. “Son….what’s wrong with your eyes?”

Taehyung’s eyes went wide and he blinked the beautiful green away before looking back at Chanyeol with his regular brown eyes. “Nothing.”

Chanyeol wasn’t sure what he just saw but he knew one thing for sure.

Taehyung was not his son.


	4. Chapter 4

Taehyung sat in the back of his middle school classroom as the daily lessons went on. He diligently took notes for both him and Sehun, who had decided it would be cool to skip today but his father would kill him if he failed. He sighed and put the pencil down to stretch his hand as he felt it cramping up.

Exotyte History ended and Taehyung quickly packed up his things and headed towards the door. Soon as he stepped into the hallway, he felt a tap on his shoulder. Letting out a sigh, he turned around and relaxed when he saw Tao standing behind him with a sympathetic smile.

“Hey Tao. Everything okay?”

Tao had become on of Taehyung’s closest friends over the past few years. He was always a bit nicer to Taehyung but never around Sehun, for reasons he didn’t understand.

“Yeah. Sehun skipped again didn’t he?” The two boys started walking to their lockers in the crowded hallway. Taehyung held his bag close to him afraid the contents would spill out.

“Of course he did. And I’m stuck taking his notes again. Why does he hate me?” Taehyung responded as he opened his locker. He still hadn’t grown into his powers even tho the rest of his class had long since had them. Every day after school, his father Chanyeol, would help him to try and figure out what his magical power could be. Chanyeol had become protective over him ever since that first day of school when he was five and Taehyung had been careful of his father ever since due to his eyes.

“I wouldn’t say he hates you….more like...you’re an easy target to him since you know….you don’t have your powers yet.” Tao whispered the last part in case someone heard. Because of his father Baekhyun’s high rank, they excused him from in school magic practical classes, on his demand, so that he may practice at home away from prying eyes. It was the one way to assure that Taehyung wouldn’t be bullied in school. Or so they thought.

Sehun made Taehyung’s life a living nightmare since they met. Taking his father’s personally made lunches, making him do his homework. Sehun was the typical school bully, and Taehyung was his favorite target.

“Yeah, well I can’t help that. My father and I have been trying to bring it out but we’ve hit some snags in our lessons.” Taehyung said as they reached the lockers. He opened his with a quick touch to the handpad and began to exchange out his books and grab his lunches. He asked Chanyeol for two that day, hoping that Sehun wouldn’t mind if he actually had his lunch today.

“What is that?” Tao asked when he saw the second box Taehyung placed in another section of his bag. “Oh Taehyung don’t….you know Sehun is going to find that. You’re better off leaving this in your locker and going on a bathroom break during your next class.”

“You know that won’t work either. If I ever take a break during class, it’s only going to last no more than 5 minutes and last time I checked, our Exotyte biology class is exactly 10 from my locker.” Taehyung argued.

Tao placed his right hand against the side of his face and went into thought mode. “What if...you leave the second lunch here and go to the bathroom while Sehun eats the other lunch?”

Taehyung thought on it and his eyes went wide. “That’s actually not a bad idea. Alright. Let’s hope this works.” He removed the second lunch from his bag and placed it back in his locker, closing it then proceeded to lock it back in place.

They walked towards the cafeteria so that Tao could buy his lunch before heading to the courtyard where Sehun, Kai and Kyungsoo sat waiting for them.

“TaeTae! Glad you could finally make it.” Sehun said when he caught Taehyung walking over to him, Tao hot on his heels. “Got my lunch?”

Without a word, Taehyung took out the box and handed it to Sehun who grabbed it excitedly. “You father is the best chef on this planet. You know that?”

Taehyung gave him a tight lipped smile and sat down as he watched Sehun pick up his utensils and dig into the steak and vegetables that his father made him. He wished he could eat them himself but he knew that was a reach. The entire time during lunch, he snuck glances at Tao’s plate but all he could have, according to Sehun, was water.

“What’s wrong TaeTae? Hungry?” Sehun said finishing off the last bite of potatoes that were in the box as well.

Taehyung shook his head and stood up. “I’m just going to go to the restroom. I’ll be right back.”

Sehun raised a brow and nodded at Kai. “Fine by me. Kai you know what to do.”

Kai sighed and broke away from his lunch to stand up and follow Taehyung. Taehyung wasn’t that close to Kai as he was Tao. Tao let him get away with things he knew Sehun didn’t want him to have. Kai on the other hand was Sehun’s lapdog. He had to figure out a way to shake him off so he could eat.

“Uh...the bathroom is that way Park.” Kai said in a slightly annoyed voice when they turned towards the lockers.

“I know...I just...left something at my locker. I’ll meet you over there.” He looked at the other boy and saw that he wasn’t going to budge.

“What are you hiding? You know Sehun won’t like it.” Kai said grabbing Taehyung’s arm causing them both to stop in the middle of the hallway.

“Nothing. I just…”

“You just what?” Taehyung froze when he heard that voice. He turned to see Sehun and a guilty Tao standing behind him. “You were acting strange wanting to take a bathroom break in the middle of lunch. So I had Tao tell me what you were up to. Hand it over.”

Taehyung looked around and realized that they had stopped near his locker. “Can’t I even eat?”

“Not around me. No.” Sehun gave him a menacing smile. Taehyung was getting annoyed. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths before walking to his locker and opening it with the hand pand. He took the second lunch box out but he didn’t turn around. He had learned that when his emotions got the best of him that his green eyes would show and that was the one thing that his father, Baekhyun, never wanted to be known, though he still wasn’t sure why.

“Well? Hand it over.” Sehun said grabbing Taehyung’s shoulder but he shook him off. Sehun’s eyes went wide in disbelief before he activated his powers. Taehyung suddenly felt his air supply being cut short and he fell to his knees, clutching onto his neck and gasping for air. He dropped the box, the contents spilling out onto the floor beside him. He heard Sehun laughing before he spoke again. “You’re pathetic. No magic. No friends. Just a pathetic Exotyte. Even your face of desperation is pathetic.”

Taehyung continued to gasp for air. He still had his eyes closed but he could feel them changing to his hidden emerald green. He turned around best he could and reached out, arm extended towards Sehun, and thought of Chanyeol’s words in his mind.  _ Your power comes from your heart. Once you access that, the rest comes easy. _ He had tried over and over and nothing happened.

“Sehun, maybe you should calm down.” He could hear Tao with urgency in his voice.  _ No friends? Pathetic? What’s pathetic is you needing to bully me the way you do Sehun. _

Everything stopped soon as he finished his last thought. Then, all of a sudden, he could breathe. He felt his eyes slowly changing back to his neutral brown color before opening his eyes slowly and looking around him. Sehun was lying flat on his back and a crowd had shown up in the hallway during the time that his eyes were shut. Tao looked at Taehyung with angry eyes while he knelt beside Sehun, holding him in his lap.

“Alright everyone! Stop crowding the hallway and get back to your lunch break!” A teacher parted the students and usher them along. Taehyung recognized Mr. Kim Heechul, the art teacher and froze. Mr. Kim looked at him and shook his head. “Of all times to get your powers huh? Well, better late than never. But we must send you home for the day.”

“What?” Taehyung was shocked at what he had just heard. “What powers?”

Mr. Kim looked at him laughed. “You mean you don’t know what…” The bell rung, signaling the end of lunch hour and soon students were rushing past them to their next classes, stopping every so often to glance at Taehyung in either curiosity or fear. “Never mind. I’ll have your parents explain. They’ve already been contacted and informed of the situation.”

Taehyung stood up and glanced over at Sehun who was still lying in Tao’s lap unconscious. He didn’t know what was going to happen from here on out but he knew that one thing was for sure.

He no longer had to worry about Sehun’s petty bullying any longer.

~~~

Taehyung was home alone while his parents went out for their anniversary, his eyes the hidden shade of green that he could never show to anyone. After the incident with Sehun five years ago, Baekhyun had to pull a lot of strings in order for him to take classes outside of the school. His magic was similar to Baekhyun’s except a little stronger. A beam of light had escaped his hand and pushed Sehun back, knocking him out for two weeks. They tried to let him finish the semester but everyone, including the teachers, shied away from him.

Now, it was graduation season and this would be the first time in five years that he would see his classmates for the official ceremony. It was also the year that his class would be going to MatExo Academy, an institution of sorts that would bring young Matoki and Exotytes together for a new peace between the two planets. The Academy had been opened officially four years ago and Taehyung couldn’t wait to go, hoping he would make real friends for the first time in his life.

He went into his parent’s bedroom curiously and began to look around. He would miss sneaking into their room in the middle of the night and snuggle in between Baekhyun and Chanyeol. He went into their closet and laughed to the memories of hiding from Baekhyun in there many times, scaring him when he thought something bad happened to him. He bumped into the wall and his eyes went brown as a natural precaution and felt a few things fall down on top of him and onto the floor.

“Ow…” Taehyung rubbed his shoulder and was about to turn and pick everything up when his socked foot touched something. He looked down to see a small box with a coded lock on it. He picked it up and turned it over in his hands curiously. “Hmm…”

He waved his hand over the lock and gasped when he heard clicks and wiring noises come from it, signaling that it was opening. He sat down on the floor of his parent’s closet and placed the box in front of him as it finished opening. Inside was a small book bound by leather. Taehyung picked it up and opened it to the first page.

_ This diary belongs to Baekhyun Byun _

Taehyung’s brows rose in surprise. He never expected his father to keep something like this. Intrigued by his discovery, he opened to a random page and began reading.

_ Dear Diary, _

_ My roommate has a pretty big appetite. Whenever we go to the cafeteria, his tray has a lot of everything. He even somehow has room for seconds of the same amount! He’s pretty protective of his food though. Kind of reminds me of Chanyeol, except he doesn’t eat as much. Though he eats as much as he does, he is a horrible cook. The entire camp had a day on the base where we would taste each other’s cooking and the best that he could do was make simple sandwiches with a jam like substance native to the Matoki people. It was oddly delicious but nothing compared to Yeol’s amazing meals. Maybe I can bring some back to have him experiment with? _

_ Sincerely, _

_ Baekhyun _

Taehyung flipped further through the diary, reading one random entry after the other. He laughed at most of them but overall, he was intrigued by this Matoki roommate of his that soon became heavily mentioned as the dates went on. The entries seemed as if they had a strong friendship but something about the way it was written made Taehyung think otherwise.

_ Dear Diary, _

_ Leaving the base was difficult to do today. I feel as if I took from the mission exactly what our kings wanted us to learn and now I don’t want to leave. Every single Matoki I met, after all the constant fights in the beginning, seemed to be great people, save for a few stubborn ones. But I will really miss my roommate the most. Our last night on the base was one I don’t think I’ll ever forget. I hope I can see him again in the future. _

_ Sincerely, _

_ Baekhyun _

Taehyung re-read the entry again, confused. While Baekhyun had never mentioned his roommate’s name, he spoke of him almost as if he were more than just a friend. After that entry were a few about Chanyeol and about their argument and their making up. He was about to give up after just one last entry.

_ Dear Diary, _

_ I don’t know how to feel about this news. I’ve learned that I’m now pregnant. I should be happy, I know I should. But I have a nagging feeling in my gut about this child. There is a very high possibility that this child is not Chanyeol’s but my old Matoki roommate’s. I should’ve known better. I should’ve been smarter and not given in on that last night together. How would I be able to look Chanyeol in the eye after this? How could I ever tell him that his worst fear came true on that base? _

His father didn’t sign it and he hadn’t written an entry since then. Taehyung didn’t know what to think as he read the last entry over and over again. If what he was reading was true, Taehyung was half Mato and half Exo.

“Well that would explain a lot.” Taehyung muttered under his breath. He always wondered why he had to keep his green eyes hidden and now with this new information it would make complete sense.

“Son! We’re home!” Chanyeol’s booming voice pulled Taehyung from his thoughts and he scrambled to place the diary back in its box and lock it before putting it back in its place at the top of the closet. “Taehyung! Where are you boy?”

“I’m up here dad!” He shouted before bounding down the steps to greet them. He hugged Chanyeol tightly, burying his face into the old man’s chest. “Did you two have a great night?”

“We did. Baekhyun barely ate though.” Chanyeol walked to the closet by the door and put his and Baekhyun’s coats away.

“You okay dad?” Taehyung tentatively stepped towards him nervously.

“I’m fine. Just tired.” Baekhyun answered with a reassuring smile. “How about you? Ready to go to your graduation ceremony?”

Taehyung looked at his feet shyly. “I guess. It’s been a long while. Think I’ll be able to handle being around my class again?”

Chanyeol wrapped an arm around Taehyung’s neck and led him to the living room. “I don’t think any of them could ever forget you son. You’re one of a kind.”

_ That’s an understatement _ . Taehyung thought with a smile.

The next day, Taehyung woke up bright and early to the sound of Chanyeol’s horrible attempt at singing him awake.

“Rise and shine my precious boy! Time to get ready for your special day!” Taehyung couldn’t help but laugh.

“I’m up, I’m up!” He shouted, trying to avoid Chanyeol’s wagging fingers that signaled a tickled awakening that he did not want in that moment. “Where’s other dad?”

“Other dad he calls me. I’m hurt.” Baekhyun said with a chuckle as he walked into the room with a tray in his hands. On it was Chanyeol’s steak and cheese omelette made with a small salad on the side. Baekhyun placed it on his son’s lap and casually sat in Chanyeol’s lap as Taehyung dug into his breakfast. “Why don’t you try calling me mom anymore? You used to sometimes.”

“I was like six when I did it though.” He replied, his mouth full of food.

“Doesn’t mean I don’t want to be called that.” Baekhyun pouted and Chanyeol laughed at the conversation. Taehyung grumbled before swallowing his recent bite and turning his head towards Baekhyun.

“Fine, fine. Morning mom.” He grinned widely as Baekhyun squealed and tackled him. “Okay, okay already. Can I finish my breakfast now?”

“Oh sure thing! Meet us downstairs when you’re ready to go.” Chanyeol said, peeling Baekhyun off of Taehyung and dragging him out the room. Baekhyun pouted playfully before he followed Chanyeol into their bedroom.

“Can you believe it? Graduation.” Baekhyun said walking into the closet and sifting through his clothes for a simple dress shirt.

“We knew he would make it babe. He was just a late bloomer.” Chanyeol came up behind him, wrapping his arms around Baekhyun’s waist and resting his chin on his shoulder. “So…”

Baekhyun pulled out a grey button down and held it to his chest. “What?”

“When are we going to tell him?” Baekhyun froze and gently shook Chanyeol off of him.

“Tell who what?” He looked at his lover curiously and yet felt slightly afraid of what he would say next.

Chanyeol had pondered for years since Taehyung’s first day of primary school if he should bring up what he saw to Baekhyun but he always ended up changing his mind and moving on. Now with him in front of him, slightly shaken, he wanted to know.

“You know what? Never mind. It’s nothing.” Chanyeol backed up and left Baekhyun looking after him confused. He just couldn’t do it. Taehyung was his son, whether or not it was by blood. Whoever his birth father was didn’t matter, he raised him so the child was his regardless.

They heard footsteps running throughout the house and the two of them plastered smiles on their faces before quickly dressing and meeting an eager Taehyung downstairs by the front door. “Ready to go?”

The family hopped into their car and drove towards the high school. Taehyung felt his heart rate going up the closer they got. He hoped that no one would remember him since they haven’t seen him in so long. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case when they reached the school. He stepped out of the car and all of the students that were milling about outside, stopped in their tracks to oggle the young man. Taehyung gulped and turned towards his parents.

“I have to go meet up in the side gym before we go out to the stadium. I’ll see you later.” He gave them a reassuring grin before jogging towards the entrance of the building.

“Think he’ll be okay?” Baekhyun said watching after his son with worry. Chanyeol wrapped an arm around his shoulders and he immediately relaxed.

“It’ll be fine. He’s a big boy now. Nineteen and ready to be let go even though neither of us want to.” He laughed and Baekhyun rolled his eyes at him as he wriggled out of his arms to walk with the other parents and guests towards the stadium.

Inside the school, Taehyung walked slowly down the hall, taking an alternate route to the gym to avoid any staring for the time being. He came across a large glass case that held trophies from competitions that were held that year and years previous. He noticed a photo beside one of the trophies and smiled when he saw that their school’s team won the high school division magic leagues that year. His parents had taken him to at least watch since he couldn’t even attend school normally.

“Taehyung? Is that you?” A familiar voice caught his attention and he tore his eyes away from the glass case to see Tao standing before him. He had definitely grown taller since he last saw him and his hair was even darker than he remembered. His eyes seemed to have more bags under them than usual but otherwise, he seemed fine.

“Tao! Long time no see!” He gave him a smile and Tao returned it. “Ready to graduate?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be. I had to study my ass off just to get through finals. What about you? Or were you just fine as always?” He replied playfully.

“No worries on my end. Though things were crazy at home most of the time.”

They stood there silently and pondered over what to say next.

“You know Sehun hates you even more now. He knows you’re going to be here today. I’d be careful if I were you.” Tao spoke suddenly but Taehyung wasn’t bothered. He had a feeling that he would.

“I’ll be fine. I don’t think he’d be crazy enough to-”

“Tao where the hell are you!” He was cut off by another familiar voice coming from behind him. He turned around and was face to face with Oh Sehun for the first time in five years. Sehun took one look at him and glowered. “You! You better not cause any trouble today.”

“No more trouble than you’ve always given me.” Taehyung answered coolly. He turned back to Tao and patted his shoulder before walking past him. “I’ll see you guys on the field.”


	5. Chapter 5

On Planet Mato, Daehyun was helping his wife Xelena set up the dining table for their last gathering before their son, Kenneth “Kenny” Jung, and Himchan’s daughter, Victoria Kim, went off to MatExo Academy the next day.

“Can you believe they’re going tomorrow? My little boy all grown up.” Xelena said as Kenny walked into the dining room, a huge grin on his face. His black hair was pushed away from his face, revealing his forehead. His sharp eyes turned into little crescents when he smiled at his mother.

“Mom, calm down. You knew this would happen eventually.” He wore a simple red t-shirt and some dark blue jeans. He leaned against the frame as he watched his parents finish the last bit of set up. “I’m honestly excited.”

“Really?” Daehyun said, a teasing smile on his face. “I thought you were too afraid to leave the planet?”

“Dad, I was at least ten when I said that.” Kenny hung his head in embarrassment.

A knock on the door caused the family to look at it. “I got it”

Kenny walked over and opened it to let their guest in. “Uncle Jae is here!”

Daehyun smiled and walked over to the foyer to greet his friend while Xelena took a deep breath and went into the kitchen to begin putting the food on the table.

“Youngjae! Glad you could make it. How are things at the Academy?” Daehyun led Youngjae into the living room and they sat down on the couch.

“Pretty good. Relations seem to be getting better with the species. More friendships are blooming and that’s always a good thing.” Youngjae said with a laugh. “Though that’s all they’re comfortable with. Friendships are fine but when they want to start dating, Gods forbid.”

Kenny’s ears perked up at that and he turned to Youngjae. “Wait, there are some who want to attempt to date? What kind of foolishness is that?”

Daehyun placed a hand on his son’s arm to reassure him. “Son, there is nothing foolish about someone’s feelings for another, even if they’re from another planet.”

“You won’t catch me with one of those….things.” Kenny muttered under his breath before walking off to the hallway The two older males shook their heads at him as he walked back upstairs to his room.

“He’ll learn.” Daehyun mouthed to Youngjae as there was another knock on the door. Daehyun got up and answered it, leaving Youngjae to hold in his giggles, to see Himchan and his daughter, Victoria standing outside. “Himchan is here!” There was a thump upstairs and Daehyun bust out laughing. Kenny having an obvious crush on the Captain’s daughter made for entertaining evenings as he grew up.

“Hey Dae. Something smells great.” Himchan patted his shoulder while walking past him into the house.

“It better. I made ShiShi Stew.” Xelena said walking into the dining room with a pot in her hands. She placed it on the table in the center before walking over to greet Himchan. “Old friend, how are you?”

“I’m well. I’m exhausted with the students and research. I’m not as young as I used to be.” Himchan smiled and his eyes crinkled at the corners. Age was catching up to him faster than normal ever since the death of his wife ten years ago. The only light in his life now was his daughter Victoria. She stood beside her father with her hair flowing down her back in beautiful dark brown curls. She wore one of the many dresses her father bought her even though she preferred pants.

“That you are not. Come and sit at the table. Dinner is ready.”

Kenny stumbled downstairs in a white t-shirt with a dark blue button down over it and some jeans. Daehyun, Himchan and Youngjae all chuckled at Kenny’s display as he sat next to Victoria who was clueless, as usual, to the boy’s feelings. Dinner went by smoothly as they discussed the Academy and their plans after their time there.

“Daddy, what’s the Academy like?” Victoria asked looking at Himchan expectantly. “I can’t wait to go and meet the Exotytes.”

Kenny looked at her incredulously but said nothing.

“Hmm…” Himchan sat back and rubbed his chin, pretending to be deep in thought. “ Well the Academy is full of youth so I would like to say they are a handful like you are.”

Victoria chuckled as she took another spoonful of stew into her mouth.

“But overall, the Academy has built some great relationships between the species.”

“Hope it's only friendships,” Kenny mumbled before taking a bite of his bread. Victoria unfortunately heard him and frowned.

“Why only friendships? I think it would be cute to see a romantic relationship between the species. At least then we would see what each of our people are really like.” Victoria retorted and Kenny looked up at her with a confused expression on his face.

“Because that’s sullying our people. Why would we want to distill our bloodlines more for peace?”

“You don’t get to choose who people love, Kenny.” Victoria huffed. “Plus, its not like every continent on our planet got along so well before now either. With ideals like that, you wouldn’t have even been born.”

“Young lady.” Himchan hissed and she sighed and went back to silently eating her food. Kenny did the same and moments later excused himself from the table.

The night ended awkwardly and soon it was time for everyone to leave. Kenny and Victoria were leaving the next day and everyone needed their rest. Youngjae stayed a little longer to help clean up while Daehyun went to help Kenny pack. He walked into his son’s room and found him playing with a fighting game on his holo-tv.

“Son, you alright?” He asked coming to sit next to the boy on his bed.

“I’m fine. Why?” Kenny’s eyes never left the screen as he pressed a series of buttons to let out a huge attack on his opponent.

“You just seemed upset at dinner. That’s all.”

“I’m fine dad.” He paused and put down the controller before turning to Daehyun. “I just...don’t like fighting with her.”

“Well if you like her, fighting will happen. One day you’ll tell her how you feel right?” He patted his son’s shoulder as he nodded. “But you have to see that she wants to try for peace and accepts things more than you. Try to open your eyes. There is nothing wrong with a romance between the species.”

Kenny groaned and rolled onto his stomach, away from Daehyun’s gaze. “Now you sound like her. What’s so special about those things anyway?”

Kenny yelped when he felt Daehyun smack him right in the back. “Don’t be disrespectful. I didn’t raise you that way.”

“Yes, dad.” Kenny grumbled into the bed. Daehyun smiled at his back before leaving the room. He knew his son still had a lot of growing up to do.

~~~

_All students, please make your way to the main auditorium for a meet and greet session. You will also be picking up your room assignments and keys and other important information._

A sweet voice echoed through the speaker system of the Academy space station. Returning Matokis and Exotytes walked the halls to help direct the new students where they needed to go. Many of them were happy to see each other again after the much wanted trip back to their home planets.

Taehyung walked the halls with excitement in his eyes as he looked around. He held a large bag on his right arm with his rolling suitcase in his left hand. He looked down at the map provided to him and tried to find the auditorium as best he could without stopping. None of the Exotytes were willing to help him and he expected that much, plus he couldn’t very well ask a Matoki. He was too shy about it.

He looked up to see where he was and groaned in frustration when he realized he made a wrong turn. Turning around, he stomped back in the direction he came and tried to at least follow the flow of traffic. Finally he found the auditorium and sat at the far end of the room to survey the area.

The Matoki students wore a deep red, almost burgundy, uniform that had a jacket or vest with a button down or a t-shirt combination.  While the males wore a tie or not, many of the female Matoki’s wore skirts but Taehyung spotted a few that wore pants instead. His eyes landed on a group of Matoki females in the center of the room and he smiled at their laughter and excitement that emanated off of them. One of the girls looked up and caught him staring and smiled. He turned away quickly, blushing.

The Exotyte’s uniform was similar to the official military uniform, except more silver than navy blue. Like the Matoki’s, the tops varied with a button down or t-shirt with a tie for the males and a skirt or pants for the females.

He felt eyes on him and looked around to see that many of the Exotytes, old and new, were watching him. When he caught their eye, many would whisper and shudder at him. He spotted Tao and the others walking into the room in a simplified version of their uniform; a t-shirt with their silver blue pants. The only one who had the entire uniform on was Kyungsoo, which was typical considering how particular he was about everything he wore.

“Hey!” A voice startled Taehyung out of his thoughts and he looked to his left to see a Matoki coming to sit next to him. He was towering over him but that was probably only because he was standing at that moment. His hair was jet black and covered his forehead slightly. “What are you doing here all by yourself?”

“Oh, I um…” Taehyung stumbled and scooted over slightly in his seat.

“Haha, no need to run. I’m not gonna hurt you man.” The male patted him on the back lightly before jutting his hand towards Taehyung. “I’m Jimin Park. Matoki as you probably can already tell.”

Taehyung took his hand carefully and shook it. “Taehyung. Taehyung Park. Exotyte.”

“Wow! We have the same last name. Cool.” Jimin said sitting down next to him. “You excited about this thing? I’ve been waiting to come here since it opened. I have a few older friends of mine that are here too. You might like them.”

Taehyung smiled at that. He could use some new people to be around, even if they were from another planet. Jimin continued to talk on and on while they waited for the announcement of the room assignments. He could still feel eyes on him but it felt different this time. He looked around while Jimin spoke of different foods he wanted him to try and spotted the Matoki female from earlier looking at him.

Her eyes were wide and a beautiful shade of purple and her hair was up in a high ponytail with a few tendrils on the side of her face. She was tall and had a sophisticated air about her. Jimin stopped talking when he noticed Taehyung looking off somewhere. He smirked when he saw who he was looking at and nudged him in the side, causing the boy to jump.

“I see you like the Captain’s daughter already.” Jimin said.

“I don’t...wait….the Captain?” Taehyung asked surprised. _That would explain her demeanor_.

“Yeah. That’s his little girl. Just trying to be friends with her as a male on Planet Mato is a challenge in and of itself. Her father swats them all away. Especially after the death of his wife.” Jimin explained and Taehyung looked at her again with a more empathetic gaze.

 _“All students line up by the back doors to get your room assignments.”_ They looked to see an Exotyte faculty member with a mic in their hand and Taehyung grinned widely. It was his old primary school teacher Sunny standing there with shorter hair than he remembered and a bright smile on her face.

“You look happy. That a girlfriend of yours?” Jimin asked noticing his smile as they stood to get their room numbers and keys.

Taehyung shook his head and laughed. “No. She’s one of my old teachers. She was great to me in my primary years.”

“Ahh…” Jimin shoved his hands in his pockets as he walked beside him. “So why are all the other Exotytes avoiding you?”

“You just get right to the point don’t you?” Taehyung chuckled.

“You’re gonna have to get used to that. I plan on sticking around.” He playfully punched Taehyung in the arm and he had to hold his facial expression in. Jimin was surprisingly strong for a seemingly thin male.

“Mmm...well…” He didn’t get to explain as he was pushed out the way. He didn’t have to look to know that it was Sehun who had pushed him.

“Hey! Watch where you’re going!” Jimin said to him. Taehyung heard a chuckle from behind him.

“TaeTae knows better. Don’t you Tae?” He felt Sehun’s hand on his shoulder and he stiffened. Jimin caught it and grabbed Sehun’s wrist. Sehun cried out in pain as his hand squeezed around his wrist more.

“Break it up!” Another voice was getting closer to them and Taehyung looked to see a taller Matoki was making his way over to the boys. He grabbed Jimin by the arm that held Sehun’s wrist and looked at him. “I’ve told you to be careful about your damn strength. Have you learned nothing while I’ve been gone for a year?”

“But Hobi!” Jimin whined letting go of Sehun. Sehun held his wrist while Kai held him up as best he could.

“I don’t care. You know better by now.” The older Matoki scolded and Jimi pouted. Taehyung was amazed at the interaction. Hobi, as Jimin called him, turned to him and sighed. “I’m sorry about that. Jimin doesn’t know his own strength sometimes.”

“It’s quite alright.” Taehyung said bowing slightly at the male.

“As for you there, I don’t know why Jimin practically broke your wrist but I know you were in the wrong for pushing this young man earlier. Apologize.”

Sehun glared at Hobi then glanced at Taehyung and spat at him. “This trash Exotyte deserves nothing from me.” He stormed off towards the table where the room assignments were given, the crowd that had formed around them parting to make way for the angry Exotyte. Hobi shook his head at him and turned back to Jimin.

“Now, how have you been since I’ve been gone? Other than fighting people we’re supposed to make peace with?” A playful smile appeared on his face and Jimin lightly punched Hobi in the chest.

“I’ve been good.” Jimin sat giving him a side hug. He pulled away and grabbed Taehyung by the shoulders. “Hoseok, this is my new friend Park Taehyung.”

Hoseok held out his hand and Taehyung shook it. He could feel the power in his handshake was probably just as strong as Jimin’s but with more control. “Nice to meet you Taehyung. I’d love to stay and chat but Namjoon wants to do some training before the official classes start. Just hit me up on the holophone when you get your room. I’ll come by and visit later.”

Hoseok walked off leaving the two males where they were. Letting out a breath, Taehyung got in line with Jimin to wait for their room information. “So how does this whole rooming thing work out anyway?”

“From what I know we get paired with someone from the other planet.” Jimin said as they moved in the line. That made Taehyung’s eyes widen and he dug around in his bag until he found a small book.

“What’s that?” Jimin asked straining his neck to see what he took out. “A diary? Yours?”

He shook his head. “One of my dad’s. He was here when they had the first meeting between the planets. I remember reading in here that it was set up the same way back then.”

Taehyung flipped through the pages and found the passage he was looking for. “Found it! ‘Looks like we’ll be rooming with the Matokis instead of with each other like many of us hoped. Its better this way. At least we could try to get to know one another if we roomed together.’”

Jimin’s forehead creased. “Wait...who exactly is your father?”

Taehyung put the book back in his bag before speaking. “He’s one of the Lieutenants of our military.”

Jimin raised his brows. “Whoa. That’s pretty high up.”

The line moved quickly and soon the two of them were up front.

“Name?” The Exotyte asked.

“Taehyung Park”

The Exotyte looked through the virtual file space and found his name. “Here is your key and room information. The rule book is not something to take lightly either. Break a single rule and you’ll be sent home. Got it?”

Taehyung nodded and walked away, letting go of a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. He stood and waited for Jimin as he got his room assignment by the wall where he could see everyone hurrying to gather their belongings and head to their rooms. He spotted the Matoki Captain’s daughter standing in line not too far from him. She was laughing at something one of the other Matoki girls had said and it caught his attention. She paused and her eyes searched for something and landed on Taehyung.

His eyes went wide and he blushed and looked away quickly. He didn’t look at her for a moment but curiosity pulled at him and he turned to look her direction again. She was watching him with caring eyes and a small smile as her friends chattered away around her. He returned the smile, blushing.

“Hey lover boy. I get that she’s pretty but I really wanna put all my stuff away.” Jimin said, snapping him out of his gaze.

“Oh. Sorry.” Taehyung gathered up his things and followed Jimin out of the auditorium and down the hallway towards the lift that would take them to the rooms. “So what room number did you get?”

“734. You?”

“Whoa! Same here. Guess we’re roommates then.” Taehyung grinned.

“I knew I was right to come and talk to you. Let’s go buddy!”


	6. Chapter 6

Taehyung walked beside Jimin as he chatted animatedly about training and his childhood while they walked to their new living arrangements. He wasn’t sure if he should say anything so he just smiled at the young Matoki and laughed when he felt necessary. They made it to their room and stepped inside. It was a simple room, just like what was described, with two twin beds, dressers, a shared closet and a large holo tv.

“Nice! Looks like we’ll be living good in here.” Jimin said as he tossed his bags on his bed closest to the door. “I’m gonna take this bed if that’s okay.”

Taehyung nodded and went to immediately unpack his things, careful to put the journal in his latch bag that’d he’d carry around everyday for class. They moved around, putting things away but it was very entertaining since they both started singing random words together. They left their door open as they put their things away, getting glances and giggles from the hallway as others passed by them.

“You guys are sure having fun.” Taehyung turned to the door and saw a Matoki male standing in the doorway he didn’t recognize. “Jimin! C’mon introduce me to your roommate! Mine is a total bore.”

“Oh hey Bobby! This is Taehyung. Son of the Lieutenant on EXO Planet.” Jimin said while greeting the other Matoki in a brotherly manner.

Bobby whistled and grinned at Taehyung who stood shyly by his bed. “High ranking officer kids are something else. They even look different.”

“Taehyung this is my goofy friend Bobby. Don’t let his smile fool you, he’s actually pretty weak compared to the rest of us.” That caused Bobby to put Jimin in a headlock. Jimin pretended to struggle which made Taehyung laugh brightly.

“It’s nice to meet you. Who’s your roommate?” He hoped it wouldn’t be Sehun. That would make things uncomfortable.

“Some stiff with bags under his eyes. Why? Know him?”

Taehyung let out a sigh and smiled. “He’s an old friend. He’s really nice when he’s not with certain... _ other _ Exotytes.”

“Ah, I feel you on that. We got that type. What’s the kid’s name again?” Bobby looked at Jimin.

“Oh you mean Kenny? He’s not so bad. I used to play with him when I was a kid.”

“A kid can change. Especially when he doesn’t want anyone else around you know who.”

Taehyung looked between them confused. “Do I want to know?”

Bobby and Jimin glanced at Taehyung before Jimin spoke. “You know that girl you were looking at before? The Captain’s daughter? That’s who you want to be careful around. Kenny has a huge thing for her and pretty much is the only guy allowed around her with her father’s blessing. Anyone else gets near her and it’s interrogation time.”

Taehyung took in the information and huffed. It wasn’t like he had anything to do with her. “Okay. So who’s this Kenny?”

“He’s the son of the Captain’s best friend. The Lieutenant’s son, like you.”

Taehyung’s eyes went wide and he nodded. “Sounds okay to me. My fathers would probably get along with his.”

Jimin and Bobby laughed at Taehyung’s nonchalant attitude. “I like him Jiminie. He’s cool in my book.”

“Wasn’t your senior supposed to meet you later Jimin?” Taehyung asked, sitting down on his bed.

“Oh Hoseok? Shit, I almost forgot about him. I should definitely call him...tomorrow because tonight is our first night on this bad boy.” The two Matoki’s cackled while Taehyung watched them amused.

“Don't worry about it. Let's just finish unpacking and explore this place.” Bobby nodded at Jimin before leaving them to finish putting their room together.

Taehyung finished before Jimin and decided to look through his father's journal once more.

“So what's so important about that journal?” Jimin asked curiously while he put his clothes away.

“My dad wrote some interesting pieces about when he was here almost twenty years ago.”

“Interesting like what?” Jimin sat down beside him and peered at the book. Taehyung hesitated before turning to the entry that he read before leaving home and passing it to Jimin.

He read the passage silently. His eyes widened when he read Matoki and looked up at Taehyung. His eyes were the emerald green he's known his whole life.

“See what I mean?”

~~~

“I cannot believe you're half Matoki. That's so unheard of!”

Jimin was pacing back and forth in their room. Their door was now shut off as he paced. Taehyung sat cross legged on his bed, head down and biting on his bottom lip nervously.

“I didn't want to believe it either but there's the evidence right there.”

“And I just confirmed it for you. Oh my god.” Jimin sat on his bed and slumped over. “You have no clue as to who this Matoki is that could be your real father?”

Taehyung shook his head and flipped through the journal once more. “All that it said in here was that his roommate was another Matoki who was on the base with him.”

“Then let’s start there. We can find out who they are and go through those possibilities. It has to be one of them.”

Taehyung scrunched up his face at Jimin. “Wait...you’ll help me find him?”

Jimin shrugged. “It sounds interesting. Since you trusted me with that information, it’s only right I help you anyway I can.” The Matoki sighed and went back to unpacking his things silently. Taehyung was a bit worried since he told him about this so soon but it was easier to tell him than it would’ve been to Tao. And Jimin seemed more understanding than anyone else he’s ever met in his nineteen years of living.

“So, why did you tell me?” Jimin said putting away the last of his things in the closet. He turned to Taehyung from the door and looked at him with a blank face. “I mean it's not like we really know each other and yet you showed me the one thing that could probably cause a riot on both planets.”

Taehyung shrugged. “You feel like someone I can trust. Like an old friend I was meant to have.”

Jimin grinned, his eyes turning into crescents and his eyes becoming the familiar emerald green that Taehyung grew up hiding. “That's a good feeling you have there. Alright Taehyung. I'll keep your secret.”

~~~

The first day of intercultural classes began the next morning and Victoria was so excited to meet her classmates that she was early to her assigned room for the year. The desks were large as well as the room itself. Each desk had a workpad installed into each of them, which made doing work in class easier. Today would be the day that they’re assigned their class partners from what her father had told her.

The door to the room opened and she turned to the new body entering the room and smiled. It was the shy Exotyte from orientation. His dark brown hair messy but stylish on his head. His eyes were wide as he saw her standing in the middle of the room.

“Oh um...I’m early aren’t I?” He stumbled over his words as he adjusted the strap of his bag on his shoulder. “I haven’t been in a classroom setting in a few years so I wasn’t sure if I had to be here at seven or eight.”

Victoria chuckled and walked over to the shy Exotyte. She placed her feet together to stand straighter and put her left hand behind her back, extending her right to shake his hand like she was always taught. “It’s alright. I saw you yesterday. My name is Victoria Kim.”

The Exotyte carefully took her hand and shook it. She had a gentle grip compared to her normal one as not to scare him any more than he already was. “Taehyung Park. Nice to meet you.”

The air around them felt warmer and Taehyung relaxed as he smiled back at the beautiful Matoki in front of him.


	7. Chapter 7

Taehyung was feeling shy in the classroom. After the introduction the two of them sat down next to each other in silence. He fiddled with the binding of the notebook he brought with him trying to keep his eyes in check. He had learned a lot from Jimin the night before about his eyes and about what could be the reason his powers were dormant for so long growing up.

“So...I heard your father is the captain of the Mato military.” Taehyung blurted. Victoria looked at him before cracking a smile, a smile that made him blush.

“I'm surprised you know that when I know nothing about you.” She chuckled.

“I-I’m sorry. Someone told me and I---”

“Its okay Taehyung. I'm not surprised. But what about you?” She asked, resting her chin in her palm as she looked at him.

“What about me?” He sat up straighter. “My fathers are a chef and a lieutenant.”  _ Well at least that’s half true. _

“Oh, so you’re used to the military.” She giggled and he couldn't help but smile.

“Yeah…I...uh…” Taehyung stuttered but he didn't get to finish his thought as the classroom door opened and some more students started walking inside, including Jimin and Bobby.

“Whoa, you got here early.” Jimin commented sitting on the other side of Taehyung. Bobby sat behind him shaking his head with a laugh.

“I haven't been to an actual school in years. I got nervous.” Taehyung hid his face in his hands, causing Jimin and Bobby to share a look.

“Well, first things first, we gotta get you to leave with us so you don’t have awkward conversations.” Bobby joked only making Taehyung’s face redder. Victoria giggled before her attention was pulled away by Kenny.

“What are you doing here so early Vicky?” He asked sitting beside her. She dropped her smile, knowing Kenny didn’t really like Exotytes.

“Why does that matter?”

Kenny blinked and let out a small breath. “I just wanted to know. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be so hard on him, girl. Kenny just stays jealous.” One of his best friends Yugyeom joked, sitting behind him.

“Shut up!”

That brought a smile to Victoria’s face and she just sat silently as the rest of her classmates filed into the room, including a couple of her friends Hwasa and Minji. She spotted the Exotyte that was bullying Taehyung the other day and her nostrils flared. From what she found out from a friendly Exotyte female, he was always a bully ever since he was a child, which made no sense to her. After another fifteen minutes, their professor stepped into the room, Youngjae Yoo.

“Alright, I know you guys are anxious to leave. You’re lucky day one is only orientation. However today I will also assign partners to each and every one of you. And before you ask, no it will not be your roommate.”

“Good, mine isn’t very talkative anyway.” Bobby said quietly causing Jimin to chuckle a bit.

Youngjae shook his head and turned his attention to the holo board behind him. There was a collective groan from a few students when they saw who they were paired with along with their photo. 

_ Kenneth Jung (M) and Taehyung Park (E) _

_ Victoria Kim (M) and Sehun Oh (E) _

_ Bobby Kim (M) and Kai Kim (E) _

_ Hwasa Ahn (M) and Kyungsoo Do (E) _

_ Jimin Park (M) and ZiTao Huang (E) _

_ Minji Gong (M) and Yerim Kim (E) _

_ Yugyeom Kim (M) and Joy Park (E) _

_ Jihoon Lee (M) and Wendy Son (E) _

“As you can see here, these are your partners the next four years while you are here. Get along as best you can because this is important for peace between our people.”

Sehun raised his hand. “Is it possible to switch partners?”

“No. It isn’t. Now I want everyone to move and sit near their partners so we can go on with class.”

Taehyung looked to the other side of Victoria and politely waved to Kenneth who was getting up to move to the other side of Taehyung as everyone else moved around to find their partners and settle into their new seats. He watched as Victoria moved to the back of the class, already knowing that Sehun wouldn’t get up to move to her. Jimin moved to the other side of him with Tao on his other side. It felt good for Taehyung to at least have him nearby.

“So, now that that’s been settled. Let’s get started. Now as some of you know, I’m from Mato. What you will learn this year is the basic history on Mato Planet. We hope that it will help Exotytes understand who we are. As your years progress here, the history will be more in depth so be sure to pay attention as we will be having weekly quizzes.”

Another groan escaped the class but they were all silent as class began. Taehyung was extra attentive considering it was also his history in a way. He was fascinated by the amount of struggles the Matoki had gone through before becoming one planetary nation with a monarchy. He noticed that the green emerald eyes were never mentioned but he didn’t want to bring attention to his own confused conception.

Once class ended, he put away his notebook and headed towards the door. There were no more classes for the day and he had more questions than answers about who he was and wanted to ask Jimin a few questions but he was stopped by his class partner, Kenneth.

“Hey, can we talk?”

“S-sure…” Taehyung was a bit nervous. He already had to deal with Sehun being his regular bully once again but he didn’t know how to deal with anyone else well. Jimin being his only exception in the last few days.

“Cool, I just wanted to warn you about Victoria.” He started. “Her father is really strict about who is around her so I want you to be careful around her. He’s on this base with us so he always has an extra pair of eyes on her.”

Taehyung let out a breath. Jimin was right, Kenneth was definitely going to keep any other male away from her that he didn’t approve of. He put a smile on his face and nodded. “No problem. I understand that all too well. See you next class?”

Kenny’s shoulders relaxed and he returned the smile. “Good. Glad you understand. I’ll see you around!” He patted Taehyung’s shoulder and walked off to catch up with his own friends.

Taehyung looked up to see Jimin shaking his head. He walks over to him with a tired expression on his face.

“I know man. This is only the beginning though.”

~~~~~

Taehyung and Jimin were dressed for a workout, baggy shorts and tank tops, as they walked to the training halls for the students to keep up their workout practices. Jimin had decided that the first thing Taehyung would need to understand as half Mato is that their strength can become dangerous if it isn’t controlled properly. After talking about what they had to do in order to figure out who his Mato father could be, Taehyung really wanted to understand the Mato part of him.

.

.

.

_ “Really?” Taehyung was so excited to hear that from him. “But where do we start with looking?” _

_ Jimin blinked and his eyes went back to a hazel brown. “That’s a good question. There could be other clues in that journal of his. Do you think your Exotyte father knows its missing?” _

_ Taehyung pondered on the question, remembering how much dust it was covered in when he found it. “Not a chance. It seems like he hadn’t looked in here since shortly after I was born.” _

_ “Then that will make this less worrying when we start asking questions around here.” _

_ “Ask who questions?” _

_ Jimin laughed. “You’re serious? You do know that more than a few of those soldiers from 20 years ago are on this base as teachers and faculty right?” _

_ Taehyung blinked then laughed. “Oh, you know what that makes sense. I know a few of them too.” _

_ “Then we can start there as soon as we figure out a reason to see them for other than old times. I’m pretty sure as soldiers that they know when people want something from them.” Jimin crossed his arms thinking silently as Taehyung observed him, bringing a new question to mind. _

_ “So earlier when you uh…” He started. _

_ “Huh? What did I do?” Jimin tilted his head. “Oh! You mean when I almost beat that guy’s ass?” _

_ “Y-yeah...that other Mato mentioned your strength?” _

_ “Hmm...yeah I lost control a bit there. What about it?” Jimin smiled slightly already knowing the question but he wanted to hear it. _

_ “Is that something I should know about since we know that I’m...half?” _

_ Jimin chuckled a bit. “You might have that Mato strength in you. We may not have magic beyond our eyes but our physical strength is something to definitely be rivaled.” _

_ “So you could train me right? My magic isn’t always reliable but if I can get stronger physically that might help me, especially where Sehun is concerned.” _

_ Jimin shrugs. “Sure, why not? _

.

.

.

Taehyung looked around the training area and saw how empty it was. “Wait do we have this to ourselves?”

“I thought it would be better if nobody else was watching. Can’t have your secret out.” Jimin said, closing the door behind them. “Let’s start with what you know you can do and we can move from there.”


	8. Chapter 8

Victoria walked through the station alone to go see her father, Captain Himchan Kim. She loved her father dearly and while she was aware of the rumors that he never let anyone near her he didn't approve of, she didn't let that stop her from getting to know other people. Growing up after her mother passed away was difficult but she had to watch as her father deteriorated since then. She never wanted him unhappy so despite the rumor, she kept her circle small and did her best at everything she could to keep a smile on his face.

On her way, she spotted Taehyung and Jimin in one of the training rooms. Curiosity got the best of her and she went to watch them spar.

“Okay now come at me with all your strength.” Jimin said, his fists up to protect his face. If memory served Victoria correctly, Jimin was one of the strongest males in her class throughout school, only losing to a genius boy a couple years younger than them.

“Haha very funny. We’ve been at this an hour and none of this Matoki strength is showing on my end.” Taehyung scowled. He already had a few bruises forming on his arms.

“Listen, fighting with Matoki strength may seem difficult for you given your situation but you just have to focus on it deep down. You aren't going to explode with strength overnight.”

Victoria smiles slightly trying to get a better look at the two males. She saw a blur of black and white clothing that had to be Jimin going to attack Taehyung. Taehyung dodged as best he could but his leg was caught before he could get far. He fell onto the mat with a hard thud and groaned.

“You had the right idea but you have to be quicker.” Jimin moved to help him up. “I personally think our strength lies within our eyes.”

Taehyung took his hand and lifted himself up. “Why?”

“Well, it's known we don't have magic at our disposal like Exotytes but there are some theories that the God Mato blessed the planet with it eons ago. It’s why our eyes change but…”

Victoria couldn't believe what she was hearing. He was exposing the one secret that Matoki have to keep. She opened the door wider stopping the conversation in its tracks. Jimin’s eyes go wide, already in their emerald green state and quickly change back to the brown that he normally has. Taehyung looks away, turning red as she walks closer to them.

“So what are you boys up to?” She asks with a coy smile.

“Nothing, just doing some physical training and bonding as roommates.” Jimin nudged Taehyung to turn around but he could only shake his head.

“Bonding, huh? So what are you guys doing later? I want to get to know the other Exotytes in class.”

“Probably going to the cafe then catching some holo tv.” Jimin answers while a still shy Taehyung slowly turns to look at Victoria, his brown eyes looking everywhere but at her directly. “It’s...been awhile since we hung out anyway. What with…”

“No, I understand. Well I'll let you guys get back to your uh….bonding. Bye Jiminie!” Victoria left the training hall more curious than ever, especially about Taehyung. He seemed like a nice guy but something was very familiar about him that she couldn't put her finger on.

After she was no longer within earshot, Jimin turned to a shaken Taehyung. “Don't worry, if I know Victoria as well as I remember, she won't say anything.”

“Huh? But how could she even…”

Jimin smiled. “Well even without our eyes changing, we do have some other secrets. One of which being enhanced senses. It’s likely she heard most of our conversation but since we didn't say anything too obvious I am pretty sure we’ll be okay.”

“I thought nobody else but that Kenneth guy was allowed around her?” Taehyung’s brows creased.

“Yeah, I said that but that didn't mean she cared. She’s probably one of the best friends I had.”

Taehyung pondered this information briefly and nodded. “Alright. Well let’s get back to this training. Go easy on me though.”

Jimin laughed and they went back to sparring.

~~~~~

Lunch time used to be one of the most anxiety inducing moments in Taehyung’s life. Every single day without fail, Sehun would take his lunch and make him sit with him as he ate every single bite in front of him. It would confuse his father, Chanyeol when he would ask for more than one of his already rather large servings at dinner. Ever since he arrived to the MatExo Academy, he hasn’t had to worry. Five years away from Sehun made him used to not having his lunch taken from him like the typical bully he was.

Sehun watched as Taehyung went to sit down with nothing but Matoki in the cafe. Watching him smile and laugh irritated him the longer he looked at him. “What do those ugly things care about him for?”

Tao heard him. He turned looked at Taehyung across the room and shrugged at Sehun’s question.

“It’s disgusting. It’s almost as if he’s one of them.” Sehun spat as he shoved another spoonful of food in his mouth. Today was a typical meal on Exo Planet: bubble rice with glazed duck from the Silva Region which is surrounded by dense forests and plentiful wildlife. It wasn’t as good as the lunches Sehun used to pilfer from Taehyung but it was edible.

“Why are you so obsessed with him again?” Kyungsoo spoke up, the only one not scared of Sehun and his tantrums. “He just had no magic when we were kids.”

“That’s not the point.”

“Then what is?”

Sehun went quiet. He didn’t like Kyungsoo’s logic, even if he was right but something always bothered him about Taehyung’s clear weakness. It was easy to manipulate someone so powerless and he enjoyed every bit of it. Until he suddenly manifested them five years ago. Thinking about it only made him hate Taehyung even more.

He remembered it as if it just happened. Surprising him at his locker with his hidden lunch with a smirk on his face. He had to admit to himself that he was shocked when he was told  _ “no”  _ so easily. The shaking off that Taehyung had done angered him so much that he ended up trying to choke the air out of him. But he no longer had control over his emotions and didn’t care to listen to the others telling him to stop. It wasn’t until a flash of light came from Taehyung that he stopped. It grabbed him, wrapping around his body tightly and slammed him against the wall several times until he passed out.

His father was furious with him after that. Sometimes beating him when he wasn’t strong enough. It was as if the entire incident had stunted his magic’s own strength and growth. Some days he would wake up feeling stronger but his father refused to take his strength as it was, giving him a strange bluish medicine when his mother wasn’t around.

“It is strange that they accept him so well though.” Another Exotyte spoke up, Yeri he thought her name was. “I saw him training to fight like one of them one day. Couldn’t hear anything of course but yeah.”

“You too? Shouldn’t he just train in his magic since he finally got his powers then?” Her friend, Wendy asked.

Something clicked in Sehun’s head as he heard the conversation. Kyungsoo and Kai sighed already sensing what he was thinking. “If he’s so friendly to Matoki, then why don’t we follow him and find out why? I’m curious if he actually is one now.”

Tao scrunched his brow. “But the Mato don’t have magic.”

Sehun laughed and something about it shook Tao to his core. This wasn’t him anymore. It was a version of him that his father created.

“That dear Tao is the beauty of it. If he has nothing to hide then we won’t bother with it anymore.” He placed his hand on his shoulder and Tao had no choice but to agree as they began to plan how to follow Taehyung around.

“What about Kai? He can teleport so he could hide in their room and listen to them talk or whatever.” Yeri suggested.

“That only works when I’ve been there before.” Kai immediately rebuttals. “How about you?”

“I don’t have very good stealth powers and you know it.” Yeri rolled her eyes at his taunts.

Tao looked at Wendy and made sure to keep his thoughts on the topic at hand. With her telepathy, she could easily out Taehyung but he knew that Sehun would want a more...dramatic approach to the spying. He saw Wendy grin devilishly.

“How about Tao?” She suggested, clearly planning something of her own. “He can manipulate time so it would also be an advantage.”

“How do you mean?” Sehun looked at her curiously. “You can literally become invisible and read minds. Why would Tao work?”

She looked Tao right in the eye. “Because Taehyung already trusts Tao. Why not use that friendship against him?”

Tao looked worried. He did not want to betray Taehyung that way.

“You’re already betraying him by still being close with Sehun. This won’t be much different than middle school.” She answered his thoughts out loud and Sehun chuckled.

“You’re right Wendy. That would work well.” She smiled at his compliment. “Tao, as soon as lunch is done, get to work. Not only would this be entertaining but you would get to hang out with your best friend again.”

Tao sighed and nodded. This was going to be a long year.


	9. Chapter 9

Taehyung sat in his room and took out his father’s diary, turning to the last entry, reading it for some clue about who his Matoki parent could be. It bothered him that his father never told him the truth but he understood why. It would have devastated Chanyeol and he didn’t want that. He thought about when he came to pick him up from his first day of school and saw him crying. He always wondered if he saw his eyes change that day but he never treated him as anything less than as his own.

While he was lost in his thoughts, the door to the room opened and Jimin walked in with Bobby and Yugyeom following behind him. “Tae! Where you been? You missed a fun game of...what would you even call that Bobby?”

“Some weird combination of Mato ball and whatever is fun on Exo Planet. We won though!” He said excitedly as he plopped right onto the foot of Taehyung’s bed. “What are you reading?”

Taehyung realized he had his dad’s diary out and quickly moved to put it away. “It’s nothing. Just some notes from class. I was studying.”

“You do that for fun?” Yugyeom laughed, sitting on Jimin’s bed.

“Well...no. But I don’t know a lot about Mato or your people so I thought it was best I go over my notes from class.”

Bobby shrugged and changed the subject. “Speaking of class, what is with that one group of Exotytes?”

“You must mean the ones who bullied Tae on the first day.” Jimin shook his head. “I honestly have no idea why they hate you but that one guy looks like he wants to keep you miserable.”

“Ha, yeah...miserable is a nicer way of saying what he wants to do with me.” He thought about all the stolen lunches and extra work he was made to do for Sehun and shuddered.

“Okay but what about you and Vicky?” Yugyeom asked, a playful grin on his face. “I noticed she comes up to talk to you a lot.”

Taehyung blushed. “I don’t know. S-s-she’s really nice th-that’s all.”

The boys teased and talked about his clear crush on the Mato captain’s daughter. “So, that makes me think about something.”

Jimin looked at him curious while the other two were still laughing at Taehyung’s blushing face. “What is it?”

“You know how there were twenty soldiers from each planet here decades ago?”

“Yeah, Captain Himchan was one of the soldiers chosen.” Bobby pointed out, still teasing him.

“Haha funny.” Tae smiled. “Do you guys know who else was here during that time?”

They all went quiet and thought about it. As far as Taehyung new, the only Exotytes who went were him and Sehun’s fathers and another teacher. Knowing Sehun, he would never let him talk to his father without him around, so that was out.

“I actually don’t know. I only know Victoria’s dad came here since he is the captain.” Yugyeom finally answered.

“What about Kenny? His dad is pretty high up as well. Maybe he went?” Bobby suggested.

Jimin shared a look with Tae. “That’s all and well but who is here on this base now that was here all those years ago?”

“I know Zelo’s brother is here now. Oh and Jongup too. He was always ready to go home apparently during the thing. He’s got a temper.” Yugyeom added.

“Well that makes three original Matoki we could ask but I’m not that confident to talk to Vicky’s dad about this.” Jimin admitted with a laugh. “What about Exotytes?”

Taehyung was hesitant but he sighed and told them. “Well there’s the chemist Heechul Kim. His brother Minseok and…” He paused and looked at his friends expectant faces. “Sehun’s father...Captain Joonmyeon Kim.”

Jimin sucked in his breath. “Well...that’s a start. Why don’t we talk to them one by one. Who’s first?”

Yugyeom raised his hand. “Why do we want to know who was here?”

“Uh...curiosity. I only know my father was one of the 20 soldiers from our planet who came here 20 years ago. He never talked about it though, so I kinda wanna know what happened here.”

Jimin and Bobby laughed. “Know your history. Am I right?”

Tae looked at the boys and smiled. “Well I guess we better get started.”

~~~

The next day, the boys decided to speak with Minseok first after Mato History. He was a family friend for Taehyung and it would make it less stressful to ask the others on the base first. Taehyung was often early to class so it was no surprise that he was sitting in his desk going over his class notes when the others walked in.

“Hey Taehyung.” He looked up to see Tao standing next to his desk. “What are you up to?”

“Uh...hi...what does Sehun want now?” Taehyung was already used to this song and dance with their acquaintanceship. Either Sehun was angry with him, which of course he always was, or he wanted to get something from him.

“Nothing. I just thought that it should be at least one of our kind to talk to you. You’re ostracized because of his anger.”

Taehyung tried not to laugh. “Yeah. Sure. He’s up to something and he usually sends you first to soften the blow of whatever he wants to have me do or do to me.”

Tao was speechless. He didn’t expect this response from him at all. He took a deep breath. “That’s fair. But I do have something to talk to you about. Meet me after class?”

Taehyung looked at him with squinted eyes. Something about the conversation seemed off to him but he didn’t want to draw too much attention to the plans he had with the Mato. He thought up a compromise.

“I have some training classes after this. How about after that?”

Tao nodded and went to his seat near the back of the class.

“That was interesting…”Jimin said beside him. “What do you think he wants to talk about?”

Taehyung shrugged and went back to his notes on Mato History.

Once class finished, Taehyung, Bobby, Yugyeom and Jimin met up in the hall to find one of the Exotyte soldiers: Minseok Kim.

“So do you think he’ll know who paired with who?” Yugyeom asked.

Jimin shrugged. “It’s better we start somewhere. For all we know, he has some kind of juicy story about a Matoki and an Exotyte hooking up.”

The two Mato boys laughed but Jimin and Tae shared a look hoping for that exact answer.

“Nah. It’s not possible. While I’m no expert, I know they all had some serious hate when they got up here.” Bobby was wiping tears from his eyes.

“Did you hate Exotytes when you knew you were coming here?” Taehyung’s heart rate sped up as he waited for the Matoki’s answer.

“Honestly? I had no clue why anyone did before. I mean other than the war, of course.” He grinned. “But don’t worry TaeTae. I don’t hate your people. I’m too young for that.” He pulled Taehyung in for a side hug and they all laughed and kept walking until they got to Minseok’s office.

They knocked until a muffled “Come in” was heard and opened the door. Minseok was sitting at his desk watching something on his holo tablet, not caring to close out the cartoon video he was watching. He looked up when he saw Taehyung standing there with the Matoki boys.

“Taehyung, what are you doing here?” He leaned back in his chair with a curious expression on his face.

“I..we had some questions about the peace summit and who better to ask than someone who was here twenty years ago?” Taehyung suddenly felt nervous. He was hardly close to Minseok but he did remember seeing him many times over his house growing up, having dinners with him and his family with his wife. He always seemed so strict to him despite his young features.

“That’s...not a problem but why now?” He looked at the Matoki behind him. “And why are they also here?”

“School project. Plus what’s wrong with knowing a little more history.” Bobby chimed in.

Minseok shrugged and Taehyung visibly relaxed as they all sat down and started asking him questions they prepared. “So what do you guys wanna know?”

“Well, first what was it like up here the first time?” Jimin started.

“One word: chaos. Honestly if it wasn’t for your father Tae, you guys probably wouldn’t be here today.” He chuckled.

“Why do you say that?”

“Well, the moment we were told we had to share rooms and partner with...well...your kind. Let’s just say unpleasant words were tossed around. I will say that I didn’t care either way. My partner at the time was some quiet guy. He stayed to himself and listened to music. Even showed me some songs that I still kind of like.” Minseok was reminiscing with a fond smile on his face.

“Do you remember his name?” Taehyung asked. “What about his looks?”

Minseok looked at him curiously. “Yeah. Yongguk Bang. He was a tall, lanky fellow but he was ridiculously strong. Nearly knocked me out when we spared once.”

Bobby laughed. “That sounds like him. He’s been training most of us since we could walk.”

“What about other pairs? Do you know who stayed with each other?” Yugyeom sounded more interested than before.

They stayed in Minseok’s office talking and asking questions as much as they could but unfortunately for Taehyung, he didn’t know who was paired with his father.

“I didn’t see him much. He helped keep the peace but he was quiet. Didn’t seem like he was really attached to anyone that I can remember.”

“Thanks for your time, sir.” The boys saluted and left the office. They went back to Jimin and Tae’s room to dissect what they just learned.

“So, nothing seemed out of the ordinary from what he told us. What exactly are we looking for?” Bobby was the first to speak. “Because it seemed like you two know something we don’t.”

Jimin and Taehyung shared a look. “We were just talking about it and wanted to know more. That’s all. Nobody really knows the problems the soldiers went through during the summit. It’s more curiosity than anything.”

Bobby tilted his head and shrugged. “Alright. I won’t push but let us know when you wanna talk to the others. I wanna see where this is going.”

“Got it!” The two Matoki left the room, leaving Jimin and Taehyung to stew in their thoughts. “Well...that was uneventful.”

“I don’t know Jimin...Minseok seemed like he knew something and didn’t want to tell us.”

Jimin grabbed his things so he could shower. “Maybe but we have other people we can definitely talk to and get better answers from. Don’t worry about it so much.”

As Jimin walked out, Taehyung couldn’t help but feel like something was off about the answers they got today. Minseok knew more than he let on and kept information from them.

~~~

Following Taehyung around was very tedious. Tao had to be careful of how he manipulated time around him, or else he would be stuck outside of it forever. It was always a gamble.

He froze time temporarily so that he could leave Taehyung’s room. Nothing he talked about was particularly interesting and he wanted to report back to Sehun and be left alone as soon as possible. He knocked on his door and waited to be let in by whoever was following him around that day.

“You’re late.” Sehun was lying in his bed, Wendy beside him with a plate of starfruit. “Tell me what they were doing today?”

Tao pulled out his phone and turned to his voice recordings. He’d done enough of Sehun’s dirty work to know that proof was always better than word of mouth. He went to the ones he recorded in their room and in Minseok’s office. When they finished the playback, he saw Sehun’s face scrunched in confusion.

“Why is he looking for that old peace shit?”

“I don’t know. But Taehyung is always reading some notes in his room. A book he doesn’t bring to class.” He didn’t know how important the book was but he saw him reading it when they started talking about looking for the old soldiers.

“I don’t care about some notes from class. Just keep following him. And if he tries to even talk to my father, stop him. He might be smart enough and just avoid him altogether but just in case…” Tao nodded and turned to leave. “Find out what Tae is hiding in that book of his.”

Once he left, Sehun looked at Wendy. Reflexively she fed him another piece of fruit. “I want you to follow both of them. Make sure he isn’t lying to me.”

“Okay. And what about your other plan?” She asked, already seeing it form in his mind. “I don’t think the captain’s daughter will care for you much.”

“Trust me when I say I feel disgusted at the thought of her doing so. I just want to see Taehyung squirm.”

~~~

Tao made it back to his room where his roommate, Bobby, watching the holo TV. He plopped down on his own bed and stares at the screen while his own thoughts played through everything he heard that day. He turned to look over at Bobby.

_ I could tell him what’s going on.  _ He didn’t want to think exactly what he was considering in case Wendy was somehow listening in for Sehun.  _ But what would that do for Taehyung or even me for that matter? _

Turning over, he let his thoughts wander around as he drifted to sleep.


	10. Chapter 10

Another day, another moment of watching and reporting to Sehun for ZiTao. As far as he was concerned, Taehyung wasn’t doing anything he shouldn’t. He went to class, practiced his magic and fighting while having a good time with his friends, his Matoki friends. That was what bothered most of the Exotytes the most but at the same time, none of them would so much as look his way during their Exotyte only classes either.

Lunchtime finally arrived and as usual, Sehun was glaring at Taehyung’s table of Matoki friends.

“You know, the more you glare at them you’re gonna bore a hole into them.” Kyungsoo spoke up.

“If I could, I would honestly.” Sehun didn’t even face him. He looks over at Tao who was silently eating his lunch and smirked. “Tao, go on and sit with Taehyung from now on at lunch. I told you to follow him at all times.”

“Seriously? I don’t think he would say anything special at lunch.” He really didn’t want to keep spying on him but he knew that wasn’t an option either. He spotted Wendy’s sly smile and sighed. “Fine. But Wendy, I’m going to freeze time around me at some point so don’t be too surprised when you can’t hear my thoughts anymore.”

“What are you planning?” Sehun raised a brow.

“To get the answers you want out of him without all this sneaking around. Sometimes I just want time to myself without my powers. If he has nothing to say I’ll let you know.” With that, Tao got up and trekked over to Taehyung’s table, tray in hand. Everyone looked up at him curiously, except for Taehyung.

“What do you want?” He was blunt with Tao but it didn’t phase him as he sat next to him. “Still need to talk to me?”

“I told you yesterday, I don’t think it’s fair that no other Exotyte will speak to you because of Sehun. He’s been glaring at you every day.” Everyone at the table stayed silent as he spoke but a few turned to look over at Sehun, who was indeed glaring at their table.

“Why does he even care about Taehyung so much?” Jimin asked. A few of the other Matoki were already apprehensive of Tao’s presence at the table.

Tao took a deep breath before he told their childhood story from his view. “Ever since I’ve known Sehun, he’s just been a bully. Typical shit like taking his lunch, making him do his homework and take his notes when he didn’t want to go to class. He was mean to Taehyung the moment they met.”

“I like to think it was because I didn’t have magic until I was 14.” Taehyung interjected.

“Well, that’s what kept him bullying you. Powers mean a lot for us and you know it.”

“Doesn’t make what he did any better.” Bobby pointed out. “We have our own bullies that we deal with even on Mato but we don’t have magic to parade around for pride or otherwise like he does.”

Taehyung and Tao shared a look. “It doesn’t help when he has a pretty strong power over air. He could take all of our breaths away if he wanted. That alone keeps most of the Exotytes from doing anything he doesn’t like.”

Tao didn’t need to be a mind reader to tell that the entire table was no longer comfortable with the topic. That was his opening to freeze time around himself and Taehyung.

“Really? Now you want to freeze everything.” Taehyung scoffed, crossing his arms.

“I don’t have much time to do this unless you want us both to be stuck outside of time and I’m going to say this once. Sehun has me following you around because he doesn’t understand why you’re only friends with Matoki.”

“I think it’s pretty obvious. Nobody will talk to me because of him. You know this. I know this. What kind of question is this?”

“I heard you were talking to find out the roommate partners for the summit. He wants to know if you’re hiding anything.”

Taehyung looked at Tao in shock. He knew that if he told him the truth, Wendy would read his mind once they stepped back into time. “Wait...why isn’t he just using Wendy?”

“Sehun likes to play mob boss, let’s not act like this is anything surprising. I’m sure he’s going to use Wendy soon if you don’t tell me anything. I’m trying to avoid that by just telling you.” Tao looked down at his watch. “We don’t have much time, maybe 2 more minutes.”

“I can’t tell you anything because there’s nothing to hide.”

Tao stared at him for a heartbeat. “Fine. Don’t tell me. I warned you.”

“Warning understood.”

“And Sehun doesn’t want you to talk to his father, but I’m sure you know that.”

Taehyung just looked straight ahead, ready to go back into the normal flow of time. Tao unfroze time and glanced over at Sehun’s table. He nodded and began to speak with everyone else at their table.

“That dude is really messed up.” Jimin said plainly. “But enough about that. Since you grew up with our TaeTae, I’m sure you have some good stories about him. He won’t tell us much of anything.”

“There’s nothing to tell!” Taehyung laughed and playfully smacked his arm.

“I refuse to believe that.” Another Matoki said. “But before we say another word, what’s your name again?”

“Huang ZiTao, my friends call me Tao.”

“Namjoon.”

“Hoseok.”

“Yugyeom.”

“Jennie and this is my shy cousin Lisa.” Two female Matoki spoke up at the end of the table.

“You probably already know me as just your roommate.”

“Nice to see you too Bobby.” Tao said rolling his eyes. “Just because we never spoke, doesn’t mean I don’t know your name. Plus you’re partners with Kai over there, which by the way is the weirdest combination. He says almost nothing.”

“You’re right! I mean is he a mute or something?” Bobby countered as the table erupted with laughter.

Their laughter caught the attention of the table not too far from them where Victoria and Kenny sat with their friends. Hwasa was talking about her roommate but she was focused on anything but the topic at her table. She had her eyes on the group of Matoki and Exotytes where Taehyung sat with his friends. She watched him with a smile as he laughed and talked with everyone around him. His mood was bright and whenever he laughed, it seemed contagious.

Kenny glanced over at her, then followed her gaze to see what had her so distracted. He had to blink a few times to hold in his irritation when he saw she was watching Taehyung.  _ What is so special about that damn guy? _

“Hey, Vicky.” She almost jumped at her name being called. “We’re thinking about doing some sparring later. What do you think?”

Her eyes twinkled and she smiled. “Sure! I’ve been feeling very out of practice since we’ve been here to be honest.”

“Oh good, me too. I threw out a right hook the other day at this ass and he was able to stop me.” Minji said with a laugh.

“I don’t think that’s why he was able to stop you.”

Kenny let out a sigh and made a mental note to talk to Taehyung later about this.

~~~

“Did you get all that Sehun?” Wendy asked as they watched the cafe.

Sehun had a plotting grin on his face. With Wendy’s telepathy and his powers, he had information on everyone and she just told her everything she needed to know in order to take Taehyung and the Matoki down. With the exception of Tao stepping out of the time stream, his plans began to build in his mind from all the information he had gathered.

“I see why my father approved this. We start with everything tomorrow.” He looked over to his partner, Victoria, laughing at her table, occasionally glancing back to Taehyung. “Starting with her.”

~~~

“Lunch was...interesting.” Jimin said as he and Taehyung walked the halls to the training areas. “All those stories he told us about the Exotytes were just...interesting.”

Taehyung laughed. “That’s one way to put it. I’ve known most of our class since we were toddlers. Their behavior is not surprising to me anymore.”

“I guess but what that ZiTao guy had to say about Sehun...that was messed up what he could do to anyone.” Jimin shuddered. “Okay, enough about that.”

“I’m not the one still thinking about it.” Taehyung teased as they stepped into the reserved training room, only to see Victoria in the room stretching on the blue practice mat. She looked up when they walked in and smiled.

“Finally you guys made it here.”

“Uh...what are you doing here Vicky?” Jimin placed his duffle on the nearest bench. “We reserved this room for training today.”

“I know.” She stood up and walked over to them. “I wanted to ask if I could join you guys. I hope that’s okay.”

“You can’t just show up here though. What about...um...your father?”

Victoria looked at the two males and sighed. “This isn’t about my father and you know it Jimin. I was only asking.”

“Vicky it’s not like that. It’s just…”

“It’s just what? I’m already used to everyone keeping their distance because of Kenny saying whatever about my father. I didn’t think it would matter anymore once we got up here.” She grabbed her own duffle bag near the door and started to walk out the room.

Taehyung, understanding her feelings of being ignored by his peers, ran to stop her. “Wait.”

She looked at him, her anger disappearing as she saw his expression. “I’m sorry.”

“No. It’s fine. I just…” He rubbed the back of his neck, nervous as he said his next words. “Why don’t you join us now? You did say you were asking to train with us today.”

Victoria took a breath and smiled. “Thank you, Taehyung. But I think I’ll train on my own today.”

“How about next time? I can send you a message when we’re coming here again.” He took out his holo phone, hoping she would say yes.

She glanced at Jimin who could just shrug then looked back at Taehyung. “Sure, I’ll come. Besides, you’re probably not learning much from him anyway. He’s all bone, no muscle.”

They laughed and exchanged contacts before she left, closing the door behind her.

“So...that was cute.” Jimin grinned at Taehyung playfully. “You might end up dating her by the end of the year if you keep this up.”

Taehyung blushed while his eyes turned emerald green. “Stop. I just...want to be nice to her.”

“Uh huh and I’m the king of Mato.”

“Shut up and let’s start.” Taehyung said throwing the first punch.

~~~

**_Back on Exo Planet_ **

Baekhyun sat on the couch in the living room, face stained with tears as he waited for Chanyeol to get home. He had finally been confronted about Taehyung’s birth and couldn’t hold it back any longer.

_ “I know.” Chanyeol had spoken calmly as they sat together. “I’ve known for a while now. I just didn’t know how to bring it up.” _

_ Baekhyun just sat quietly in tears. Chanyeol sighed and stood up. He walked over to the kitchen and opened one of the drawers, taking out a stack of papers. _

_ “I’m sure you have regrets and know who his other parent is.” He dropped the papers in front of Baekhyun with a soft thud. “But I cannot be with you anymore.” _

_ “...What.” Baekhyun choked out and looked up at him. “Chanyeol...no.” _

_ “What do you mean ‘ _ no _ ’? You cheated on me. And with a  _ Matoki _ at that! You lost my trust a long time ago but that information alone could get our son killed!” _

_ “Our…?” Baekhyun was shocked to hear him say so despite everything. _

_ Chanyeol’s face softened and he sat back beside him. He took his hand in his own before speaking again. “Yes,  _ our _ son. I helped raise him. I love him as my own because he  _ is _ mine.” _

_ Fresh tears began to fall from both their eyes. “You have no idea how happy I am to hear you say that. He loves you and it would break his heart if you didn’t claim him anymore.” _

_ “I know.” Chanyeol patted his back. “I may not want to be with you anymore but I do still love you both.” _

Baekhyun finally moved to wash his face. He stared at his reflection, seeing puffy eyes and wanted to burst into tears again but he knew this day had to come eventually. By the time he had finished freshening up, Chanyeol was waiting downstairs in the living room again.

“It’s done.”

“Ok.” They stared at one another in a staggering silence before Baekhyun spoke up once more. “Can you we keep this between us? It is a promise that I broke to not tell anyone of the Mato eyes by telling you the truth.”

Chanyeol nodded. “I won’t tell a soul. We will have to tell Taehyung the truth though.”

“I know. But, I don’t want him to find out through a message. He deserves to be told the truth in person.”

“You’re right. We’re going to see him in a couple of months. So let’s do it then.”

“No. They’ll be sending the students to each other’s home planets in three months. I want to tell him at home. There’s something I want to show him.”

Chanyeol nodded in agreement.

  
  
  


Unaware that everything would soon blow in their faces.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm currently working on moving this story from Asian Fanfics to here so please leave a comment and subscribe if you like this story and want to see more.


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